In the Footsteps of painter Richard Hall

  Richard Hall: Interiör från Bretagne (Interior. Scene in Brittany), 1888 Oil on canvas, 75 x 93 cm Nationalmuseum, Sweden Photo: Linn Ahlgren / Nationalmuseum     In my blog post, I wrote about Brittany and Le Pouldu during the time when Richard Hall lived in Brittany. I am currently aware of eight paintings that he made while living there. Two of them are located in museums. I will now focus on these works, as high-quality photographs of them are available. The other six works have either been sold at auction, shared on social media, or exhibited at the Paris Salon. Hall himself has said that he sold many of his Brittany-themed works to the United States. Artists who traveled to Brittany were particularly interested in seascapes and the distinctive clothing style of the local population. Nordic artists mostly depicted the region's inhabitants outdoors, working on farms or as part of the landscape. At the same time, they practiced outdoor painting, which required ...

Richard Bergh: Den lille krymplingen / Pojke från Concarneau, 1881 (A Little Crippled / Boy from Concarneau) Oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm Nationalmuseum Photo: Cecilia Heisser, Nationalmuseum, Sweden As I mentioned in my blog post on Laurens and Benjamin-Constant , Richard Hall's postgraduate studies in Paris remain shrouded in mystery. The Swedish government's travel grant of 3,000 kronor was intended to cover two years of postgraduate studies. Hall moved to Paris in the fall of 1881, so based on that, we can calculate that the grant lasted until the fall of 1883. After that, he had to trade his studies and freer lifestyle for earning a living by selling his paintings. We also know that Hall married his Swiss cousin Julie Cornetz in 1881. In addition, he has said that for a few years he shared a studio with his fellow student from Stockholm, Richard Bergh, who was a good friend of his. In the 1880s, Nordic artists formed a close-knit artist colony in Paris. I have not yet found ...