In the Footsteps of painter Richard Hall

Mrs. Corby Fox Source: Kotitaide-lehti 08/1909, Jyväskylä University   Richard Hall held a private exhibition at the House of Nobility in Helsinki from October 10 to November 8, 1909. The exhibition was open daily from noon to 4 p.m. The venue was prestigious, located in the administrative center of Helsinki, one block from Senate Square. The exhibition proved popular, attracting a total of 2,675 visitors. It drew considerable attention in the press, with several news articles and reviews being written about it. Hall continued to work during the exhibition, painting three portraits. It seems that he remained in Finland for quite some time after the exhibition, at least until August of the following year. At that time, he wrote a letter from his mother's home in Villa Rauhala with the aim of arranging a visit to Finland for the artist's daughter and her spouse. A good selection of source material from the exhibition at the House of Nobility has been preserved. The National Gall...

Left: W.K. Vanderbilt, photograph circa 1900. Source: Wikimedia Commons Right: Photograph of Richard Hall’s painting Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt. Source:  Hall Richard Pintor [1930s-1960s], British Library   Richard Hall made his definitive breakthrough as a portrait painter in the spring of 1901, when he held a solo exhibition at Galerie Georges Petit. I wrote about the exhibition in the blog post Successful Exhibition in Paris . That autumn, he painted a portrait in Paris of Mr. Vanderbilt, who belonged to one of the wealthiest families in the United States. A year later, in the fall of 1902, Hall stated that he had traveled to New York to paint other members of the family. Writing this article has been exceptionally challenging due to the abundance of conflicting information. The sources include old newspaper articles and the archive Hall Richard Pintor [1930s–1960s] , published by the British Library. The archive was created when Hall, while living in Argentina, sent his p...

Illustration from the newspaper article  L'Éclair 11 May 1901   On Thursday, 2 May 1901, an exhibition of Richard Hall opened at Galerie Georges Petit. Located at 8, rue de Sèze, it was open from 2 PM to 7 PM. The exhibition received extensive coverage in the French press. Thanks to these articles, it’s possible to form an impression of the event, even though I don’t have access to a catalogue or images. The tone of the reporting was influenced by the newspapers’ political leanings: the most detailed review was published by the left-leaning La Dépêche Toulouse, which did not hold back its criticism. The article describes the exhibition in great detail, helping to reconstruct what works were likely on display. Georges Petit was one of the most renowned gallery owners in Paris. Archives from his business have been digitized and available in French National Library’s Gallica service . However, I wasn’t able to find materials related to this specific exhibition, so for now, we don...

Richard Hall in his Paris studio. Undated photograph Source:  Hall Richard Pintor [1930s–1960s], British Library I’ve previously reviewed Richard Hall’s earlier residences in France in the blog post Places of residence 1883–1900 . In 1900, Hall returned permanently from Brittany, and his address was solely in Paris at Avenue Victor-Hugo 43. Once again, I’ve consulted the Musée d’Orsay’s database on the Paris Salons , which lists the artist’s addresses up to 1914. That year also marks the final exhibition for which digitized Salon records are available online. Breakthrough in Paris Hall’s career as a portrait painter took off in May 1901, when he held an exhibition at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. The show, which featured portraits among other works, received extensive coverage in the French press and attracted a large audience. Following this exhibition, Hall became a sought-after portraitist. It appears that after 1901, he painted portraits during all his travels—which were num...