An Adelaide art student 1893�99

From the age of fifteen, Hans Heysen developed a serious interest in art, constantly drawing and experimenting with watercolour and oil paint. While working full-time in a hardware store, he regularly walked to the Adelaide Hills in search of subjects to paint.

In mid-1893, Heysen began formal art studies with James Ashton at the Norwood Art School, and later began to exhibit regularly with the South Australian Society of Arts and the Adelaide Easel Club, receiving promising reviews in the local press. He also studied with H P Gill at the school of design at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Heysen won a gold medal for a work submitted to the Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain in 1899. With his considerable talent gaining recognition, four Adelaide businessmen gave him £400 to study in Europe. In return, Heysen agreed to send them all the finished pictures he painted while overseas.