Chambers Hall (1786–1855) was an English collector of drawings, bronzes, and other works of art. The son of William Hall, a naval captain of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, he lived at Elmfield Lodge,

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, and died on 29 August 1855 in Bury Street, St. James's, London. He was a patron of artists, including

David Charles Read David Charles Read (1790–1851) was an English painter and etcher. Life Born at Boldre, near Lymington, Hampshire, on 1 March 1790, Read went to London at an early age, and worked under John Scott (engraver), John Scott the engraver; but, in po ...

Legacy

In 1855, a few months before his death, Hall presented to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

a group of 66 drawings by

Thomas Girtin Thomas Girtin (18 February 17759 November 1802) was an England, English watercolour, watercolourist and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form. Life Thomas G ...

, and antiquities including bronzes. To the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

he gave at the same time the rest of his collections, including drawings by

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, a portrait of Mrs. Bradyll by Sir John Reynolds, a portrait of

James Thornhill Sir James Thornhill (25 July 1675 or 1676 – 4 May 1734) was an English painter of historical subjects working in the Italian baroque tradition. He was responsible for some large-scale schemes of murals, including the "Painted Hall" at the R ...

and sketches by

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

, and a painting from

Herculaneum Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of ...

. Other works in the gift included bronzes, and a portrait of himself by

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist, and is one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to sing ...

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Chambers 1786 births 1855 deaths English art collectors