Ejnar Hansen

Ejnar Hansen was born in Copenhagen in 1884, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and became part of the modernist group De Tretten (The Thirteen). He emigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and lived in various states before settling in Pasadena, California in 1924. He taught at several art schools and colleges, including Chouinard Art Institute, Otis Art Institute, Pomona College and Art Center School. He was a founder of Den Frie Udstilling, an alternative exhibition venue for avant-garde artists in Copenhagen, and exhibited his work widely in the U.S. and abroad. He was known for his portraits, landscapes, still lifes and murals, which showed influences of Expressionism, Cubism and Art Nouveau. He experimented with various media and techniques, such as oil, watercolor, lithography and ceramics. He was friends with many artists, such as Maynard Dixon, Sadakichi Hartmann, Ben Berlin and Frode Dann. He died in Pasadena on September 26, 1965.