Early Spring 1988

"Early Spring" is a black-line landscape etching from the late 1980s, likely depicting a Vashon Island scene in March or early April—bare deciduous trees with new buds, low light, perhaps open ground or a pond before full leaf-out. As a single-color intaglio, the image relies on the etched line, drypoint burr, and aquatint tone to carry seasonal information that color would otherwise convey. Hansen used seasonal markers as recurring structural devices in his landscapes—early spring, late autumn, midwinter—following the seasonal sensibility of meisho-e and the broader Japanese tradition he absorbed during his graduate study and through Seattle's print holdings. The 1988 etchings belong to a period in which Hansen's island scenes grew quieter and more abbreviated, with diminished narrative incident and increasing emphasis on light, weather, and bare structure. The print is consistent with his preference for working from direct observation around his Vashon home rather than from photograph or invention.