Sylvia Hahn

1911- 2001

Sylvia Hahn was born in 1911 in Toronto, Ontario. Her father was the artist and teacher, Gustav Hahn.

She received her academic education at Havergal College, where her sisters had also attended, and at the University of Toronto. She then studied at the Ontario College of Art under her father, J.W. Beatty, Archibald Barnes and other. Hahn was awarded a Governor General’s medal for her achievement in her graduation year at the College (1932), and she was appointed an associate of the department of painting and drawing at the college.

In 1934, Hahn joined the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum where she did identification drawings for the Museum’ catalogue and from 1935-1946 she completed 11 murals for the Display Department of the Museum, which are still in place today.

Sylvia Hahn’s most productive years were from the 1940s to the late 1960s. She taught metalwork, judged craft competitions and illustrated books. She was an active member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and various craft organizations (including the Toronto Metal Crafts Guild). She was given many commissions and her superb liturgical work (silver, altar pieces, paintings and sculpture) can be seen in as many as 15 churches across the country. Her murals also hang in Havergal College and Emmanuel College at University of Toronto.

The artist was a proficient print-maker and was well known throughout her life for her wood engravings and woodcuts. She illustrated several books with her wood engravings, including “The Four Heads Lyre” poems by Lars von Hartnn, and “A Naturalist’s Guide to Ontario”. In later years she also wrote, illustrated and published books about nature and her cats. She was the last member of the Hahn family to live in the old summer home "Myrtle" (a subject of many of her works) located just outside Whitby, Ontario. In 1975, during the International Women’s Year, she was nominated as an outstanding woman of the Province of Ontario.

Hahn died in 2001 in Whitby, Ontario. She is represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.