Jolly Man

Gustav Adolf Hensel
United States, 1874-1953
Jolly Man
Donated by Terry and Shery Lint in 2022.
While pursuing his career as a minister in the Lutheran church, Gustav Adolf Hensel was a prolific amateur painter with a broad range of subjects. Religious themes,
exotic scenes from non-European cultures, and landscapes (especially of California) were among his creations, along with other paintings that were inspired or copied from
earlier artists. Hensel seems to have looked at a variety of painters from the past and then adopted their subjects and styles to his own work. In the case of this painting, he has imitated the jolly, congenial portraits by Dutch 17th century artists, especially
Frans Hals (1582-1666). Hals was known for his light, painterly touch in which the
texture of the paint plays a prominent role, as it does here in the Hensel painting.
Hensel received his religious education at a seminary in Berlin before his 1906 move to the United States, serving as pastor to churches from the east to the west coast before spending his retirement years in the Bay Area of California. His ministry was focused in the 1920s in the Midwest, notably in Saukville, Wisconsin, where he contributed his
paintings to decorate the church.