The evolution of an artist

Back in Adelaide in 1904 Heysen established an art school and studio in the top storey of the Adelaide Steamship Buildings, in Currie Street. He held his first solo exhibition there in May 1904.

For the first time his work was acquired for public collections. Notably, the Art Gallery of South Australia bought Mystic morn 1904, which had been awarded the Wynne Prize for Australian landscape at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Heysen eventually received a total of nine Wynne Prize awards.

1904 was also personally significant for Heysen. In December he married Selma (Sallie) Bartels, one of his art students. The couple settled with Sallie’s widowed mother in her home at Hurtle Square in Adelaide. In 1908 they moved to a rented cottage in Hahndorf, in the Adelaide Hills.