Fred Hall (1860-1948) – Sunny Morn, Bossington

Description

Fred Hall Biography

Fred Hall was a celebrated English painter best known for his evocative landscapes, characterful rural scenes, and incisive caricatures. As a member of the Newlyn School – an influential group of late 19th-century artists based in Cornwall – Hall’s work reflects a journey from social realism to impressionism. But it was in the Somerset village of Porlock, overlooking the scenic coast and moorland of Exmoor, that Hall found some of his most personal and enduring inspiration.

Born in Stillington, Yorkshire, Hall received his formal art training at the Lincoln School of Art before studying under Charles Verlat at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. His time in Antwerp introduced him to future Newlyn School contemporaries like Leghe Suthers, Norman Garstin and Walter Osborne, and helped set the stage for his artistic career in Cornwall.

Hall moved to Newlyn in 1884, where he quickly became immersed in the colony’s commitment to plein air painting and capturing rural life with honesty and nuance. His early works – such as Home from the Fields (1886) and In the Kitchen Garden (1887) – were painted with the empathy and observational clarity that defined the Newlyn ethos.

Yet by the late 1880s, Hall’s palette and technique began to shift. Inspired by the French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage and his own evolving interests, Hall started leaning towards impressionism, embracing a looser brushwork and a deeper fascination with light. In 1888, he relocated permanently to Porlock on the Somerset coast, seeking new landscapes and fresh artistic challenges.

It was in Porlock and the surrounding countryside that Hall created some of his most radiant and atmospheric work – including Sunny Morn, Bossington. This oil painting captures the peaceful beauty of Bossington, a small hamlet nestled between the hills and the sea. Bathed in gentle morning light, the scene embodies Hall’s mature style: a love for nature, an intuitive grasp of light and colour, and a quiet sensitivity to place. In Sunny Morn, Bossington, we see a painter who had not only mastered his craft but had found a subject – and a setting – that resonated deeply with him.

Hall shared a studio in Porlock’s high street with Leghe Suthers, another Newlyn artist, and the two formed the nucleus of a small artist colony. While the remote setting limited opportunities for patronage and exhibitions, it offered an abundance of inspiration. The hunting culture of Exmoor provided a rich source for Hall’s caricatures, many of which adorned the walls of his studio, once the village schoolhouse. A rare period photograph shows these lively silhouettes and illustrations pasted across the space, offering a glimpse into his dual creative life as both a painter and a satirist.

His caricatures of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds were exhibited in 1890 at Robert Dunthorne’s Rembrandt Gallery in London. The Pall Mall Gazette, covering the exhibition, described Hall – with affectionate mischief – as “a terror in the neighbourhood,” noting that his future in caricature seemed as promising as his accomplishments in painting.

In later years, Hall settled with his family in Berkshire, continuing to paint and exhibit at esteemed venues such as the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, where he was awarded a gold medal in 1912. Today, his paintings are held in collections across the UK, including Penlee House in Penzance and museums in Bradford, Leeds, and Northampton.

Fred Hall’s legacy lies not only in his masterful landscapes or his wry caricatures, but in the quiet clarity with which he captured the life and light of rural England. Sunny Morn, Bossington stands as a luminous example of his art rooted in place, rich in feeling, and filled with the still beauty of an English morning.

Available works by Modern British artists.