Mr. & Mrs. John Hall
Guide Price:
SOLDPastel on paper; ovals 10.5 by 8.5; 27 by 21.5cm; the lady signed lower left "Huquier"; original gilt wood frames; extensively inscribed on reverse
Provenance: Miss Hall of Bristol, grand daughter of the sitter until her death in 1934; then private collection; with Frost & Reed art dealers, Bristol in 1953; then private collection
John Hall was an important glass manufacturer based in Bristol in the late 18th century. His business established during the 1780’s in Broadmead lasted for just over two hundred years. The artist Huquier may well have drawn these portraits whilst travelling in the area as he is known to have engraved Richard Tyson, master of ceremonies at Bath in 1783. Born in Paris to a well respected etcher and painter, Huquier is recorded as training in the studio of the great French Rococo painter Francois Boucher. He moved to England around the early 1770’s and seems to have made a decent living as a peripatetic artist of pastel portraits exhibiting in London at the Royal Academy from 1771.