Softly Focused Pictorial Yosemite Scene by Oscar H. Hanson

Scarce image is of Yosemite Valley, 10 x 8, c. 1905, silver print rendered in a dark, pictorial style.

O. H. Hansen was a resident of San Francisco when he died in 1924 at the age of 42, although he apparently also had lived in Alameda. Hansen was cashier at the Southern Pacific Company, and a painter and friend of Lorenzo P. Latimer. They both exhibited paintings at the Annual Spring Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association in 1913 (a copy of the catalogue is attached). Hansen was also a close friend of William Dassonville (see note from cousin Olivette Dennison), who probably taught him photography (see the example platinum print of the Yosemite scene). Hansen was a member of the Olympic Club and probably the Bohemia Club as well. He was married to Elizabeth Taylor of Sacramento, who predeceased him. The Hansens left two orphan children, Marjoie and Howard, who were raised by an aunt in Sacramento. Marjorie was the mother of W. H. Offenbach, who inherited the Dassonville portfolio given by Dassonville to Oscar and Elizabeth on Christmas, 1906.

I have marked this pictorial photograph down because it has a faint yellowing along the bottom edge, but it is still quite handsome in its display mat. The photo measures 9 x 6.25 photo on period paper mount and mat, signature in ink in the bottom right corner.