biography of Wilhelm Karl HAHN (1829-1887)

Birth place: Ebersbach, Saxony, Germany

Death place: Dresden, Germany

Addresses: Dresden & Düsseldorf, Germany; Boston; San Francisco; NYC, 1878

Profession: Painter

Studied: Dresden Acad., with J. Huebner; Düsseldorf.

Exhibited: Mechanics Inst. Fairs, 1874-82; San Fran. AA, 1873-80; Brooklyn AA, 1877-80, 1884; NAD, 1878-85; Calif. State Fair, 1881; Calif. Midwinter Fair, 1894; Alaska-Yukon Expo, Seattle, 1909; San Fran. AA; Graphics Sketching Club, San Fran.; MMA, 1939; Oakland Mus., 1976 (solo)

Member: San Francisco AA (dir., c.1876)

Work: de Young Mus.; Oakland AM; Yonkers Mus.; CPLH; LACMA; Calif. Hist. Soc; Nat. Gal., Düsseldorf; Soc. Calif. Pioneers; Crocker Mus., Sacramento; Hudson River Mus.; Dresden Mus., Germany

Comments: Perhaps the most important California genre/landscape painter of the 1870s-80s. He met William Keith (see entry) in Düsseldorf in 1869 and came with him to Boston in 1871, where they shared a studio. They went to San Francisco in 1872 and established a studio there. Hahn traveled throughout Northern and Southern California in search of subjects. After spending 1878 in NYC, he returned to San Francisco and married artist Adelaide Rising (see entry). The two left on an extended trip to Europe, where he died unexpectedly in Dresden. His works are uncommon.

Sources: Hughes, Artists in California, 229; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 3, 237, 253-254, 258, 269; P & H Samuels, 201; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 232