Frederick Hall (British painter) 1860 - 1948
Frederick Hall, was born at Stillington, Yorkshire on 6 February 1860, son of Dr Frederick Hall, a medical practitioner, and his wife Mary Adelaide née Yates, who married at Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1857. In 1861, a 1 year old, living at Stillington with his parents, 29 year old Frederick and 28 year old Mary, plus an elder brother, 2 year old Herbert. He studied art at the Lincoln School of Art 1879-1881, before moving on to study under Michel Marie Charles Verlat (1824-1890) in Antwerp. In 1881, a 21 year old artist painter, together with his 19 year old sister Mabel, on a visit at Wragby Road, Sotby, Lincolnshire, the home of farmer John Hodson and his wife. Often known as, and signing his work as, Fred Hall, an English impressionist painter of landscapes, rustic subjects, and portraits. A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1885-1888 exhibiting from Wratby, Lincolnshire in 1885, four oils 'Leisure', 'Finishing Touches', 'A Cornish Lad' and 'Summer, near Antwerp' and continued to exhibit. About 1888, he became a member of the Newlyn School in Cornwall living at Faugan House, Faugan Lane in Newlyn, joining fellow ex-Lincoln School of Art student, Frank Bramley (1857-1915), where he remained until 1898 and is notable for both his series of witty caricatures of his fellow Newlyn artists, including Frank Bramley, Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947), and Norman Garstin (1847-1926), and his artistic development away from the strict realism of the Newlyn School towards impressionism. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1886 onward and at the Paris Salon, winning gold there in 1912 also exhibiting at the Royal Society of British Artists on Suffolk Street, London, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery, and the New English Art Club, but resigned from the latter in 1890. In 1891, a 31 year old widower, living at Madron, Penzance and he married again in 1898, 22 year old Agnes Beryl Dodd (30 July 1876-1940), and they went to live at The Willows, Westcott Street, Dorking, Surrey but by the time that their daughter, Barbara Beryl, was born on 17 October 1908 they were living at 7 St Paul's Studio, Colet Gardens, London and later settled in Speen, near Newbury in Berkshire. The 'Royal Cornwall Gazette' reviewing the 1886 exhibition by the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, praised the picturesque quality of the houses and beach of his 'Cornish Village' (1886), but criticised the inclusion of figures which lacked any raison d' être for being there. His 'The Goose' (1888) was exhibited at the Royal Academy 1888 exhibition and was described by 'The Ipswich Journal' as being clever and powerful, while 'The Leeds Mercury' called it humorous and 'The Graphic' 'broadly-comic' and 'eccentric in composition, even grotesque'. The 'Morning Post' commended 'The Adversity' (1889) for its eloquence and harmony of subject and landscape when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in May, 1889. In 1939, an artist, living at Hill Cottage, Speed, Newbury with his wife Agnes and daughter Barbara and where he died on 21 August 1948.
