“Notwithstanding the care of a large family, the superintendence of the education of her daughters, and the sad drawback of ill health, her energy has never failed her. She has always extended a helping hand and a smile of encouragement to young artists, one of whom was in Brown’s studio; another is the sculptor of the ‘Shipwrecked Mother,’ who alludes to her kindness in his short autobiography.
“But, while ascending the ladder to fame, her progress was arrested by ill health, and she now lives only to feel, as she says, how little she has done compared to what she might do could she devote herself to the art. Anxious to impart to others this great gift, and to stimulate her countrywomen to the development of any latent talent they may possess, she formed a class of young ladies, and most disinterestedly devoted a certain portion of her time to their instruction for several months.
“While all who know her admire the artist for her talents, her unceasing energy, and philanthropic exertions, they behold in her the good wife, mother, and friend, and the elegant and accomplished woman, presiding over the social circle. Her heart remains true to the gentle influences of nature, while her genius is ever responsive to immortal Art.”
ANNE HALL.
Anne Hall was born in Pomfret, Connecticut. She was the third daughter of Dr. Jonathan Hall, a physician of distinction. Her talent for art was early developed, and her father, who loved painting, endeavored to foster the promise of her childhood. A visitor having presented her with a box of colors and pencils, she began to use them; and her father, who was pleased with her progress, procured for her a box of colors from China. She had a brother who admired and valued pictures, and whose praise encouraged her to continue her childish attempts. He supplied her with such materials as she needed for drawing and painting. Every hint she received from artists was turned to account, and she gave herself to her favorite occupation with enthusiasm. She delighted in imitating nature; and fruits, birds, flowers, and even fish and insects were subjects for her pencil; but she took especial pleasure in producing likenesses of her friends. Living in a retired part of the country, she had little access to paintings of value for a long time; but, being sent on a visit to a relative in Newport, Rhode Island, she received some instruction in painting on ivory from Mr. Samuel King, who had been an early teacher of Alston, and also of Malbone. Miss Hall gained less knowledge from her master’s lessons, however, than from copying some paintings of the old masters which her brother afterward sent home from Cadiz and other places in Spain. These were faithfully copied on ivory in miniature. “A Mother and a Sleeping Child,” still in her possession, shows her progress at this time. “A Mother in Tears,” copied from a painting on ivory, was much admired as evidence of fidelity in copying and skill in coloring. Studying the pictures procured by her brother, she learned to appreciate their excellences, while, by comparing them with nature, she was enabled to avoid the formality of a mere copyist. She began now to give form and coloring to the conceptions of her imagination, and attempted original composition.
Miss Hall took some lessons in oil-painting from Alexander Robertson in New York, but has chiefly devoted herself to painting in water-colors on ivory. Her merits have been acknowledged by the most distinguished artists in New York and different parts of the United States to be of the highest order. Among her miniature copies of oil pictures by old masters, two from Guido were particularly noticed as executed with surprising vigor and a rich glow of coloring. Her groups of children from life were done with masterly skill, and finished with a taste and delicacy which a woman’s hand only could exhibit. Her portraits in miniature were acknowledged to possess exquisite delicacy and beauty. The soft colors seem breathed on the ivory rather than applied with the brush. A miniature group often sold for five hundred dollars.
Dunlap mentions one of her compositions as “marked with the beautiful simplicity of some of Reynolds’s or Lawrence’s portraits of children, evincing a masterly touch and glowing in admirable coloring.”
Miss Hall was unanimously elected a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. Her portrait of a lovely Greek girl, from life, was engraved, and the rare beauty of the painting was universally acknowledged. The floating silken waves of hair have an unrivaled effect. A group of two girls and a boy is admirable in composition, color, and expression. Miss Hall’s “management of infant beauty” is, indeed, unsurpassed; her flowers and children, Dunlap observes, “combine in an elegant bouquet.”
One of the best of her original compositions is a group of a mother and child—Mrs. Jay and her infant. The first, clasping the babe to her bosom, has a Madonna-like beauty; the child is perfect in attitude and expression. Another group of a mother and two young children, the widow and orphans of the late Matthias Bruen, has a most charming expression. One of the children was painted as a cherub in a separate picture, much valued by artists as a rare specimen of skill. Miss Hall has also painted the portraits in miniature of many persons distinguished in the best social circles of New York. Several of her groups have been copied in enamel in France, and thus made indestructible. Three children of Mrs. Ward, with a dog and bird; a child holding a grape-vine branch; with portraits of Mrs. Crawford, widow of the sculptor, Mrs. Divie Bethune, and the daughters of Governor King, may be mentioned among numerous works, a single one of which has sufficient merit to establish the author’s claim to the reputation she has long enjoyed, of being the best of American miniaturists.