L Bernard Hall Paintings
27 June - 26 July 2009
Lindsay Bernard Hall (1859-1935)
For over forty years, Hall was an important figure in the Melbourne art scene as a painter, teacher and administrator. He was Director of the National Gallery of Victoria (1892-1935), Head of the National Gallery Schools (1892-1934) and Adviser to the Felton Bequest Committee (1934-35).
He studied at the Royal College of Art and at academies in Antwerp and Munich and was an excellent technician. His own painting was not concerned with an 'Australian image', but rather with the pursuit of ideal beauty through female nudes, interiors, still-lifes and portraits.
He taught painting in the Munich School manner of laying in with dark shadows and warm underpainting, with emphasis on proportion and tone and trying to duplicate detail; his particular strength lay in the teaching of figure painting. Hall helped to develop numerous accomplished Australian artists such as Ramsay, Meldrum, the Lindsays, Bell, Preston, Boyd, McInnes, Traill, Napier Waller, Bale, Wheeler, Rowell and others.
His own paintings have not been exhibited together since 1971. This collection comes from a Melbourne private collector.
The Artist's Wife
n.d.
Still Life
n.d.