Portrait of a young lady
This striking picture is something of a mystery. Beautiful and skilfully painted, the three-quarter length (26”x 29”) canvas, was supplied by Charles Roberson & Co Ltd, between 1907 and 1937, and the sitters clothing and hair style certainly suggests a period between those dates.
We know the artist. Her name is painted twice on the side of the canvas. Harriet (Helen)? Hansen (Together with the number 410, which may be an exhibition code). Hansen was listed on the teaching staff at Glasgow School of Art circa 1940. The surname”Hansen” suggests a Scandinavian or Danish background. Yet her personal history remains a web of unanswered questions.
There is a record of paintings being exhibited during the 1930’s… By a Helen Hansen at the R.S.A. ‘Roses’ and ‘Portrait’ in 1933, ‘Dawn’ and ‘Garden’ in 1935. Are Helen and Harriet Hansen the same person?
The sitter is unknown but might be the cellist, Isobel Neillands.
An interesting clue in the painting, is the dark blue cloak with its pale blue broch, or clasp on the sitter’s shoulder.
In a well-known picture by Edinburgh painter Dorothy Johnston (1892-1980), entitled ‘September Sunlight’ (circa 1916). The young girl in the painting is sitting on a similar cloak, with similar clasp, perhaps suggesting an artist studio prop, shared amongst students and painters. Johnston taught at Edinburgh Collage of Art between 1914- 1924 and was a friend to and helped several female artists.
So perhaps Harriet Johnston was a student at Edinburgh Collage of Art and used the same blue cloak that Johnston had used, or as a friend, used Johnston’s studio? Whatever the circumstances, Harriet Hansen produced a wonderful, elegant portrait.
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