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Notes:
PROVENANCE:
With Montgomery Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1988
Collection of Edward Charles and Doris Bassett, Mill Valley, California

Armin Hansen was one of the most celebrated and respected West Coast
marine painters of the twentieth century. Hansen's art instruction came
first from his father, Herman W. Hansen (1854-1924), the popular Western
painter. At age 17 Armin enrolled in the Mark Hopkins Institute to
study under Arthur Matthews. When the San Francisco earthquake hit in
1906, Hansen left for Europe. Instead of going to Paris where most of
his contemporaries were studying the latest new styles in art, he
enrolled in the German Royal Academy, to work under the German
Impressionists.

After two years of study and touring, Hansen signed on as a crew member
of a Norwegian fishing trawler. He worked as a fisherman in the North
Sea and the North Atlantic for the next four years.

Returning to San Francisco in 1912, Hansen set up a studio and taught at
UC Berkeley and the California School of Fine Arts. The next year he
moved to Monterey where he taught privately and began to specialize in
painting seascapes, coastal views and, most especially, images of the
hardworking local fishermen with whom he felt an obvious kinship.
Hansen submitted two paintings to the Panama-Pacific International
Exhibition taking place in San Francisco in 1915 and won two silver
medals in the process.

Some of Hansen's earlier paintings suggest the influence of tonalism,
although most of his production is considered post-impressionist, with
strong colors applied in flat blocks with bold, free brush strokes. He
often favored a dark palette which probably derived from his instruction
at the German Royal Academy. 'Salmon Trawlers' is a classic example of
Hansen's best work. The painting is part abstract, part allegorical.
The boats seem to be in such perilous waters, seemingly engulfed by a
powerful, cold sea. The indigo blue water and the quick wispy
brushstrokes that make up the boats suggest so much drama and power with
a minimum of detail. John Singer Sargent was the master of this
technique, taking a simple swath of color to suggest a figure or an
object with perfect effectiveness.

Armin Hansen's etchings and paintings have made him an important figure
in American art. He once said: "Every move I have made and everything
that I have done has always been to go back to the water and to the men
who gave its romance. I love them all."