H. Craig Hanna

The work of H. Craig Hanna continues in the tradition of Ancient Masters. His choices in terms of framing, color, composition and model root him in his time and century. His influences range from classical western painting (Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez) to masters of the 19th century (Sargent, Whistler) and of the 20th century (Klimt, Schiele, Lucian Freud). Ancient Greek sculpture is also a major source of inspiration.

H. Craig Hanna’s Arrangement of Dancers was acquired by the MNHA in 2015. The Museum held a retrospective of his work in March 2016.

Journalist and art critic Christopher Mooney describes his work as following: ‘While antecedents are visible in HANNA’s pictures, in both their contents and surfaces (...) HANNA pushes past these to create vital works that are brashly contemporary and unmistakably his own.’ H. Craig Hanna does so ‘by eschewing, even sabotaging, the strategies of most contemporary figurative painting: he chooses his subjects from “life” instead of photographs; he roots his formal concerns—line, color, brushstroke, scale—in painterly traditions; and, borrowing a forgotten form of outsider “folk” art—fixé sous verre in French, Hinterglasmalerei in German, “reverse-painting” in English —he inverts the usual process of painting by doing it backwards, on Plexiglas.’

The National Museum of History and Art (MNHA) Luxembourg, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2016, describes his work with the following: “He reinterprets the history of European painting through the eyes of a master draughtsman and the unique viewpoint of an artist of his time by developing his very own technique (painting on Plexiglas) featuring striking colour effects and compositions.”

His work was exhibited at the Orangerie du Sénat in Paris in 2010 and the National Fine Art Museum in Malta in 2006.

After his first Parisian exhibition in June 2008, he chose to settle in Paris. In September 2008, Laurence Esnol Gallery opened to solely represent the works of H. Craig Hanna.

Shortlisted in 2001 and 2006 for the National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award, he was rewarded in 2001 for his work 'Carlos sitting on a clear plastic chair'.

In 2001, H. Craig Hanna was commended in the London National Portrait Gallery contest for his painting Carlos Sitting in a Clear Plastic Chair.

In 1998, Bergdorf Goodman held his first solo show in New York. Since, he has had shows in London, in Hong Kong and in Malta.

H. Craig Hanna (born 1967), is an American figurative painter living in Paris.

H. Craig Hanna was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1967. He has been drawing since his childhood. He earned his BFA from Syracuse University in 1994 and his MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. He started doing figurative classical painting from life at that time. His teacher John Foot introduced him to the Great Masters of figurative painting, such as Rembrandt, Velasquez, Sargent and Ingres. The Metropolitan Museum of Art played an important role in the painter’s artistic education.