My Faroe-Stamp’s collection

Arts & Artists

Hans HANSEN

Hans Hansen, also know as Hans í Mikladali, was born in 1920 on the island of Kalsoy, in Mikladalursen, and worked there as a fisherman since he was young.

Hansen learned to paint, and in 1942 he became a traveling painter. During the war, he lived in Iceland, where he learned about the work of Johannes Kjarval. In 1949, Hansen moved to Denmark and studied in Copenhagen at the Academy of Fine Arts, where, among other things, he learned the fresco technique. After his studies, Hansen moved to Tórshavn where he worked as a painter.

Artistically, Hans Hansen belongs to the first generation of Faroese painters who, in their youth, were influenced by S. Joensen-Mikines’s landscapes and the artist’s representations of houses and people.

Hansen practiced with frescoes during a period in Ravenna, Italy, in 1962 and also learned the technique of mosaic to create decorations for monuments. Unfortunately, his poor health condition and consequent premature death did not allow him to finish many projects, so that he left only a  number of minor frescoes and mosaics.

The technique of fresco was an important discovery for Hansen, because it allowed him to create characters and landscapes with bright and luminous colors with his own, personal, lyrical tone.