Heysen’s Early Hahndorf

by Colin Thiele

selected by David Heysen

Rigby, 1976, ISBN 0727000667, colour and black and white photographs throughout, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing to edges and corners, sticker residue on front cover  (see photographs)

“When Hans Heysen first visited Hahndorf he was captivated by the beauty of its forested hills and valleys and by the German flavour which persisted so strongly, after fifty years of settlement.  In Colin Thiele’s text for this book he describes the way in which the Hahndorf area became so much a part of the artist’s being that he wrote, “It’s a great life to feel you can open your lungs, swing your arms and shout whenever you like on a hilltop flooded in sunshine.”
Colin Thiele, who knew Sir Hans Heysen well, writes of the artists early association with the township and its people and of Hahndorf as it was in the days before the first World War.  The people maintained many of the customs which their forefathers had brought from Silesia, but they had also developed their own particular lifestyle.  In the comparative isolation of their serene countryside, they were an unusual community, neither wholly German nor wholly Australian.  They followed their own ways in a manner which, until quite recently, was almost impervious to change, and looked for nothing better than the rhythmic cycle of agriculture, religion, and festivities coloured by their own special practices.
For this book, the Heysen family has released a number of hitherto unpublished sketches, drawings, and engravings executed by Hans Heysen in the early years of his long association with Hahndorf.  Together with some of his better-known works and Colin Thiele’s glowing and affectionate text they give a many-sided portrait of a way of life that has vanished.”

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