Armin C. Hansen, painter, printmaker, and teacher, was born in San Francisco. His early lessons were with his father, Herman, himself a noted painter of the west and the frontier.

Hansen continued his education at the Mark Hopkins Institute under Arthur Mathews followed by two years at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Stuttgart, Germany under Carlos Grethe. After exploring Europe, Hansen joined the crew of a Norwegian trawler and he spent the next four years at sea with various crews. He returned to San Francisco in 1912 and taught briefly at the University of California, Berkeley and the California School of Fine Arts before relocating to Monterey in 1913. In Monterey he helped found the Carmel Art Institute and in 1918 he was director of the Monterey Summer School of Painting under the auspices of the California School of Fine Arts. Hansen was equally facile with brush or etching needle and his renditions of the sea brought him fame.

He was appointed an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1926 and to full Academician in 1948 and held member¬ships in the California Society of Etchers, the San Francisco Art Association, the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, and the Société Royale des Beaux-Art, Brussels. Hansen was included in the International Exposition in Brussels in 1910, the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915, the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 as well as numerous other exhibitions. He consistently won honors for his work and is well represented in the collections of Los Angeles Museum, Oakland Museum, Library of Congress, National Academy of Design, New York Public Library, de Young Museum, Newark Museum and the Cleveland Museum.

Armin Carl Hansen died in Monterey, California on April 23, 1957