Austrian landscape painter, who came from an old Viennese family. He studied at the Vienna Academy with the landscape painter Joseph Mössmer (1780-1845). From 1834 onwards, study tours, often with his friends, took him to the Alpine region. Before his first successes as a painter in 1836, Hansch coloured cheap prints. After 1848, the artist, who had meanwhile become a member of the Vienna Academy, changed to larger formats and attracted the attention of the imperial family with spectacular motifs, such as high-Alpine landscapes. The ensuing years were marked by success. In 1860, Hansch, who was influenced by Alexandre Calame, won the first prize for landscape painting at the Vienna Academy. This was followed by major exhibitions of his works. In 1873, the artist lost his entire fortune in the stock market crash and retired to Salzburg. His sudden death put an end to his plan to set up a school of landscape painting in Salzburg. //