American Art

Provenance:

The Artist

Private Collection, acquired from the Artist

Gifted to the great-niece of the above, California, c. 1960s

Thence by descent to the present owner

Lot note:

With its bold, rich colors and vigorous brushstrokes, Beach Combers exemplifies the muscular artistry of Armin Hansen. Born in San Francisco in 1886, his father was Herman Wendelborg Hansen, an artist renowned for his lively scenes of the Old West and the frontier. At the age of 5, the younger Hansen moved with his family to Alameda Island in San Francisco Bay. This move was to shape his future artistic and professional life, as he explored the waters and estuaries of his environment. From 1903-06, Hansen studied under Arthur Mathews at the Mark Hopkins Institute. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake prompted him to continue his studies in Stuttgart, Germany where he attended the Royal Academy under Carlos Grethe. The broad, darkly intense swathes of paint Grethe used to depict his chosen subject of fishermen profoundly influenced Armin. His attraction to marine life and love of adventure led him to open a studio in Niewpoort, Belgium, and he subsequently signed on for four years as a crew member of a North Sea trawler. The artist eventually returned to San Francisco in 1912 and opened a studio permanently in Monterey in 1918.

Monterey, with its fishing and canning industries, provided rich fodder for Hansen’s art. He came to know many of the immigrants that came from Sicily and Portugal and portrayed them on the chaotic piers and bustling harbors. The expressive energy of his paintings likewise echoed his physical presence. At nearly six-foot, four inches, in 1915 the Los Angeles Times art critic Antony Anderson wrote of the artist, “Looking at the paintings by Armin C. Hansen…you will at once and inevitably conclude that the painter of such big men and breezy seas must be big and breezy himself. No other sort of man could possibly have done them…You will be right, for Armin Hansen is big and young and strong—the living embodiment of his own pictures.”

Hansen’s commanding physique is echoed in Beach Combers, with its harsh, dramatic subject matter. A group of fisherfolk in the foreground search a stormy shore for goods brought by wind-whipped waves from the sinking ships seen in the upper register. Executed in distinct brushstrokes, the shadowy figures loom towards the viewer, vaguely menacing. The moody, dark palette of grays, blacks, and blues underscores the turbulent atmosphere. Only a small figure to the right, clad in a red shirt, stands out as a relief to the mysterious composition. The artist expresses a raw power in this artwork, rendered with gestural economy. Here, Hansen combines dramatic narrative with skillful application of paint and color to masterfully show man’s fight for survival in an unforgiving environment.