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John Hall

5 of 61 portraits by Gilbert Stuart

John Hall, by Gilbert Stuart, 1785 -NPG 693 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

John Hall

by Gilbert Stuart
1785
35 1/2 in. x 27 5/8 in. (902 mm x 702 mm)
NPG 693

This portraitback to top

One of the series of portraits of painters and engravers Stuart painted for Boydell, their patron, all of which were exhibited in Boydell’s rooms in Cheapside in 1786 (cf. Copley NPG 2143). [1] Park stated that NPG 693 was painted in 1785, which seems very likely; this was also the year of Hall’s appointment as historical engraver to the King on the death of Woollett. He is shown holding a proof of his print of West’s Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, [2] which was published in 1775, and the portrait complements Stuart’s William Woollett (exhibited 1783; Tate Gallery), who is shown in front of West’s Death of Wolfe, which he had engraved in 1776. These two engravings after West by Hall and Woollett were hugely successful and launched Boydell on his career of patronage; ‘no Engravers could possibly be more cheerfully attentive to the remarks of the painter whose works they were copying, than Woollett and Hall were to those of Mr West’ wrote J. T. Smith in 1828, and ‘no prints from the works of one master surpass, or even equal, those by [these] two Historical-Engravers’. [3]

Footnotesback to top

1) W. T. Whitley, Gilbert Stuart, 1932, p 55.
2) L. Park, Gilbert Stuart, 1926, W. T. Whitley, Gilbert Stuart, 1932, and H. von Erffa & A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, agree that Hall is holding an impression of his plate. A squared-up drawing by Hall, the same size as his plate, is with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and a reduced version of the painting, by West himself, the same size as Hall’s plate, belongs to the Chicago Historical Society.
3) J. T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times, ed. W, Whitten, 1920, II, p 307.

Referenceback to top

Davies 1946
M. Davies, National Portrait Gallery Catalogues, The British School, 1946, p 145.

Erffa & Staley 1986
H. von Erffa & A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, 1986, pp 207-08.

Park 1926
L. Park, Gilbert Stuart, 1926, no.367.

Whitley 1932
W. T. Whitley, Gilbert Stuart, 1932, pp 55, 62.

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, grey powdered hair, wearing a white shirt and a light brown coat with brass buttons; in his right hand he holds up a proof of his engraving of Benjamin West’s Penn’s Treaty with the Indians; he sits in a red chair and on the table before him covered by a purple cloth, lie a porte-crayon, a chisel case and stone.

Provenanceback to top

Commissioned by John Boydell; Henry Graves (who succeeded to Boydell’s business), by whom presented to the National Gallery 1850 (NG 220); lent to the NPG 1883; ownership transferred to the Tate Gallery 1954 and to the NPG 1957.

Exhibitionsback to top

Boydell Gallery, London, 1786; Second special exhibition of National Portraits (William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867(537); Georgian Essex, Dagenham, 1958 (317); Return to Albion, Washington, 1979; Artists at Work 1981-82 (7).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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