Dispatch 02
October 2021

New Video
We are delighted to share a new video, Documenting David Hanna’s Work: The Collectors’ Stories. A special version exclusive to Instagram has also debuted @davidhanna_art. The artist is brought to life in vivid, tender recollections; paintings, drawings, and sculpture; and rarely seen archival photography.

Featured Artwork
In the video, friend and collector Mark Mason reminisces about this 1972 drawing depicting his wife Myrna. The direct, immediate portrait—her gaze fixed at the viewer—is also a record of a significant relationship. Hanna often spent time with the Masons in their Pennsylvania home and the three would discuss art, art history, antiques, and architecture. “He captured everything that I know about her so beautifully,” Mason says of the commission, “and produced a feeling of her.”

Mason’s insight into the artist’s practice would later inform the essay he contributed to the exhibition catalogue for David Hanna: Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings (1977) at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Understanding the immediacy of Hanna’s work while grounded in careful study, he enthused that “as an artist in the Brandywine tradition he creates a direct perspective coupled with the subtleties of the European Impressionists—the intricacies of the Flemish Schools—the qualities of the Renaissance painters and the intimacy—of David Hanna.”

Message from The Trust
Our second issue of the David Hanna Dispatch is particularly poignant as we begin to venture out into the world again. Much of the artist’s work was created in the late hours after his family had gone to sleep; solitary, quarantined hours if you will. However, they were produced after hours and days of careful observation and engagement. The American artist (1941-1981), remembered for his canvases and works on paper depicting with striking naturalism and stillness the figure, interiors, architecture, and the natural world, was heralded by the late curator Paul A. Chew “alongside Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper.” But Hanna is also remembered for his presence, energy, and lasting friendship. This summer, we were welcomed into two homes in Pennsylvania where works by David Hanna are held in private collections and by friends who were beloved to the artist in his lifetime. Documentary photographer and cinematographer Whitney Legge again accompanied us, and we are so pleased to share with you Documenting David Hanna’s Work: The Collectors’ Stories. As Kathryn Chillingworth says fondly, “Everybody's unique, but he was unique from unique. If you ever met him, you'd never forget him.”

Thank you for sharing in our ongoing journey of discovery.

Warmly,