Clifford Hall
A Café in Madrid
Oil on board, signed and dated ’50 bottom right, entitled on reverse
Image size: 13 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (34.5 x 23 cm)
Original frame
Exhibitions
1989, Belgrave Gallery, 22 Mason’s Yard, Duke Street, St. James’, London SW1 ‘Clifford Hall (1904-1973) 15th June – 14th July, no.12.
The café scene was a seemingly popular subject for Hall – perhaps he was attracted by the meeting of individuals in a moment of pause that was separated away from the rush of the day. Indeed, the artist was known to have kept a journal in the 1920s where he made records of the painters, women and cafes he was introduced to during his time living in Paris. Later in life, when he returned to England, he was often seen visiting The Chat Noir cafe in London and was greatly attracted to the bohemian way of life that was associated with the venue.
Clifford Hall
Clifford Hall was born in Wandsworth in 1904, and spent his youth in nearby Richmond upon Thames.
In the 1920s he studied at the Richmond and Putney Art Schools. From 1925 to 1927 he studied at the Royal Academy where he won a Landseer Scholarship. He started accepting portrait commissions which funded his studies and lodgings. From 1928 he lived in Paris where he shared a studio in Malakoff with Edwin John, son of Augustus John.
Hall returned to England in the 1930s where he painted local scenes in Soho and elsewhere. From 1940 he painted Quentin Crisp three times but the current whereabouts of two of these works is unknown. Some of his drawings from that period, depicting the effects of air raids, are in the Imperial War Museum.
Clifford Hall died on Christmas Day, 1973.
