Biographies: Collectors, Dealers, Family, Fellow Artists, Patrons

Chambers Hall (1786 - 1855)

Chambers Hall (1786–1855) was a distinguished collector of drawings, bronzes and other works of art. The son of a naval captain of the East India Company, he lived at Elmfield Lodge, Southampton. Hall died in August 1855, and a few months before his death he presented to the British Museum a group of sixty-six drawings and watercolours by or attributed to Thomas Girtin, including two of his finest finished studio works, Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill (TG1635) and Bridgnorth (TG1755). Another feature of Hall’s collection was the quality of the on-the-spot colour sketches he acquired, particularly of Welsh subjects, such A Mountain View, near Beddgelert (TG1321), and these were complemented by no fewer than five of the magnificent colour studies Girtin made for the Eidometropolis, the London panorama that opened shortly before his death, including two of the most spectacular weather effects, The Thames from Westminster to Somerset House (TG1855) and The Thames from Queenhithe to London Bridge (TG1861). In 1820, Hall acquired Durham Cathedral, from the South West (TG0919) and The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey (TG1231) from the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) using the services of John Linnell (1792–1882) as a dealer.