Since his creative talents included photography, hand illustration and writing, it only makes sense that Carl F. Hanneman (1901-1982) also showed skill and promise as a painter.

We’ve covered in many places on this site Carl’s ventures in photojournalism, freehand illustration and professional writing. At least two of his framed paintings have also survived, and reside in Hanneman family homes nearly 30 years after his death.

Both paintings depict nature scenes, one in winter and one in late summer or fall. It would make sense that the scenes depicted were in Wisconsin, likely Mauston and Carl’s native home in Wisconsin Rapids.

The first shows a winter setting along a stream that is surrounded by a mature forest. A moderately deep snowfall dusts the landscape, although the stream does not appear frozen. The second scene shows a variety of trees hanging over the shore of a lake or river.

It looks like many of the properties along the Lemonweir River in Mauston, where Carl brought his family to live in 1936. The property across the street and down the hill from the Hanneman home looks out onto Lake Decorah, where the river widens before flowing over the dam. It also resembles land along Petenwell Lake and Castle Rock Lake just northeast of Mauston, where Carl was known to fish.

It is likely Carl painted other works that found their way into private collections. My Dad believed there were still a number of works in the basement at Mauston at the time of Carl’s death. The fall scene above at one time hung in the study of the Hanneman home in Mauston.

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