John Hafen
One of Utah’s finest “second generation” artists, John Hafen was born in 1856 in Switzerland and at age
six immigrated to Utah with his family. At age 8, Hafen already knew he wanted to become an artist. His
first formal training came at the “Twentieth Ward Academy” organized by Karl G. Maeser when he was a
Trying to make a living as an artist in 1870 Utah was a difficult task. Today Hafen is recognized as one of
the most appealing early Utah painters, but this was not always the case. The public was reluctant to
accept Hafen’s work and he spent much of his life in extreme poverty, working as a photographer in
order to supplement his art and support his large family.
Hafen studied in Paris from 1890-1891 as an
“art missionary” for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After long days at the Academie
Julian drawing the human figure, Hafen would head to the countryside to paint landscapes. In contrast to
the rigid discipline of the Academie, these hours in the open air developed in Hafen a looser, more
spontaneous style influenced also by impressionism and the Barbizon -school artists. Hafen returned to
Utah after only a year abroad and went to work on the murals for the Salt Lake Temple. The Paris “art
missionaries” came home well equipped to make positive contributions to the local art scene and Hafen
was no exception. He served as Vice President of the Society of Utah Artists and taught art at the
Brigham Young Academy. He was interested in art education and donated paintings to Springville High
School, encouraging other artists to do the same. This collection of donated works would later become
the Springville Museum of Art. Hafen’s work always met with more success abroad than it did in his
native Utah and Hafen spent his later years painting in California and later back east, finally settling in
Indianapolis where he died of pneumonia in 1910. He was an intelligent and keen observer, and today
Hafen’s works are sought after for their subtle, tonal quality and for quiet scenes interpreted with
sensitivity and restraint. Hafen wrote, “Cease to look for mechanical effect or minute finish, for individual
leaves, blades of grass, or aped imitations of things, but look for smell, for soul, for feeling, for the
beautiful in line and color.”
We currently don’t have any works available by John Hafen.
We are always interested in discussing or purchasing any works by this artist.
John Hafen Business Card
John Hafen
Utah Valley Dated 1906
Size 16 X 22
Signed Lower Right
Oil on Canvas
Sold
John Hafen
Seascape
Size 18 X 30
Signed Lower Left
Dated 1890
Oil on Canvas
Sold