Louise Craig
Gallery History
James Albert Hanan (1820-1885)
The Temple of Arts & Science,
Established 1878
Louise Craig with some of the reproductions of James Hanan's paintings
Thanks to Jane Hanan for permission to display Hanan’s original artworks, Dame Elizabeth Hanan for permission to reproduce Hanan related images and text, and the Southland Museum and Art Gallery for permission to reproduce images of the Hanan items in their collection.
Hanan Gallery is based in a Victorian building which was built by Irishman James Hanan for his Temple of Arts & Science. The Temple opened on 14 August, 1878 and it was the first observatory in Invercargill and was also used as a lecture theatre and for concerts.
James Hanan, a self-proclaimed professor, wanted his Temple to be an, ‘educational facility of learning and instruction, with lectures and displays on the most valuable branches of knowledge’. Visitors attended Hanan’s lectures which were based on astronomy, geology, mineralogy and anatomy.
Hanan trained in Ireland as an heraldic painter but found his passion in producing large and detailed paintings of the solar system. He used these paintings along with diagrams, specimens and his hand made orrery as teaching aids in his lectures.
Hanan also painted the twelve signs of the zodiac, constellations and stars on the Temple ceiling.
James Hanan painted images of muses above each of the five fire places
Image of the ornate stage in the Temple with the latin text,
'To know God by his works in Heaven and on Earth'
In 1882 a terrifying fire destroyed the building and those around it and only the Temple walls were left standing. Hanan rebuilt his Temple in 1883 but many of his most valuable artworks and instruments had succumbed in the fire.
​
As a way to honour and pay homage to James Hanan there is a display and handouts about Hanan’s Temple of Arts & Science in the gallery, with reproductions of paintings that were discovered in the building as recently as 1996.
The building has been altered over time but the ornate, art nouveau designed pressed tin ceiling in the hallway and on some walls remain and there is an original wooden pew from the Temple lecture theatre for viewing in the back stairwell.
