Gustav Hahn

Gustav Hahn (27 July 1866 – 1 December 1962) was a German Canadian painter, muralist and interior decorator who pioneered the Art Nouveau style in Canada.[1] Hahn was also an amateur astronomer, and his father, Otto Hahn, owned a collection of meteorites.[2]

Life

Hahn was born in Reutlingen, then in the German Confederation.[1] As a young man, he attended art school in Stuttgart. In 1888 he moved to Toronto in Canada, where he started to work as a designer in an interior decorating firm.[1] Hahn painted murals in public buildings such as the Ontario Legislature and the Toronto Old City Hall, as well as churches and residences.[1]

Hahn's major works include the depiction of the 1913 Great Meteor Procession (titled Meteoric Display of February 9, 1913, as seen near High Park) and Hail Dominion (1906). Hail Dominion was a part of a proposal to make a series of murals for the Parliament buildings in Ottawa with the Toronto painter George A. Reid.[1] For Hail Dominion Hahn used his wife and elder daughters as models for Mother Canada.[1]

References