Lot Essay
The son of prominent Western painter Herman Hansen, Armin Hansen is most celebrated for his works depicting seamen laboring on boats in the oceans off Northern Europe and California and the bustle of activity on coastal docks. In paintings like The Lonesome Salmon Trawler, he captures the raw, unpredictable ocean in saturated color, with vigorous brushwork and with realism gained from direct observation. The present work depicts a salmon trawler—likely off the coast of Monterey, California—engulfed by the untamed waves. Another work of the same subject is in the collection of the Monterey Museum of Art, California.