John Hafen | |
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Born | 22 March 1856 |
Died | 3 June 1910 |
Occupation | Artist |
Years active | 1881-1910 |
Organization(s) | Society of Utah Artists Utah Art Association |
Notable work | Girl Among the Hollyhocks |
Style | Impressionism |
Spouse | Thora Twede (m. 1879) |
Children | 10 J. Leo Hafen |
Parent(s) | Johann Hafen Anna Elizabeth Ruesi |
Awards | Utah Art Institute Exhibition Prize, 1893 and 1903 Utah Art Institute Medal of Honor |
John Hafen (March 22, 1856 – June 3, 1910) was a Swiss-born American artist, primarily of landscapes and portraits.
As a child, Hafen immigrated to the United States from Switzerland and settled in Utah. There, he demonstrated artistic abilities from an early age. In 1890, he was one of a group of "art missionaries" who studied at the Académie Julian in Paris under the sponsorship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in preparation for painting murals at the nearly completed Salt Lake Temple. After returning home, Hafen painted landscapes of rural Utah and portraits of LDS General Authorities. He suffered intense financial difficulty throughout his life and did not receive much recognition as an artist until a few years before his death. He has been named "Utah's greatest artist" by Alice Merrill Horne and "is now considered the most appealing of the early Utah stylists."[1]