C.A. Seward

1884 - 1939

Arthur William Hall 1889 - 1981

Arthur Hall was born in the small town of Bowie, Texas and spent his childhood in Oklahoma and Virginia.  His initial formal training was at the Chicago Art Institute where he met his future wife, Norma Bassett.  In a later interview Hall recalled that one of the instructors at the Art Institute had told him that he “had a good feeling for line and that he should go into etching.”  This advice and further study ultimately resulted in Hall’s well recognized position as an important printmaker during his lifetime.

Hall’s study at the Chicago Art Institute was disrupted with the advent of World War I.  In 1921, after he returned from serving in the United States Infantry in Southern France,  Hall moved to El Dorado, Kansas, where he found a position as a court reporter for the Thirteenth Judicial District.  He had learned what he described as the Pittman method of shorthand during his student years and had kept at it even during his time in the army, this skill providing him with an ideal employment situation. The two month court recess during the summer allowed Hall an extended period of time to travel and pursue his work as an artist.  In 1922, he and Norma Bassett were married and she found a similar employment situation in El Dorado teaching school.  In 1925, the Halls left El Dorado and traveled to Europe where they spent about two years studying and sketching along the Riviera and in England and Scotland.  During their travels they met the noted English etcher E.S. Lumsden and his wife Mable Royds, a well recognized block print artist.   A warm friendship ensued and the Halls then spent a year studying in Lumsden’s studio.  While they were in Southern France, Hall  had acquired an etching press and began seriously pursing etching.   After two years in Europe, the Halls returned to Kansas, again settling in El Dorado where Hall resumed his job as a court reporter.  It was during this time that the Halls became active participants in the group of artists in the Wichita area, and by 1930 joined this group as Charter Members of the Prairie Print Makers.  Letters and the Seward Family guest book document the close friendship they quickly developed with Seward. 

During the late 1930’s after Seward’s death, The Halls remained in Howard until after Seward’s death in 1939 when they decided to move to Virginia where they built a lovely home and produced an impressive group of prints. The advent of World War II changed their sentiments about this new home and they returned briefly to Kansas.  In 1944 they purchased the 200 year old adobe home and studio of artist, Gerald Cassidy in Santa Fe.  They remained there until 1950 when they purchased Rancho del Rio, an adobe estate near Alcade, a village between Taos and Santa Fe.  This new residence had over 20 rooms for guests, rose gardens, a pool and grape arbor as well as a stable of horses and thus provided an ideal setting for a summer vacation art school.  They advertised their school throughout the country and the money they earned through their series of two week painting and drawing classes, the Hall’s were able to pursue their own art during the rest of the year.  Norma developed cancer during this time and after her death in 1959, Arthur continued the school.  In 1963, at the age of 70 he married a second time, Glada Lockhart, who had also been a friend during the Hall’s student days at the Chicago Art Institute.  They soon sold Rancho del Rio and moved to Arizona to be near Hall’s brothers and sisters.  They eventually returned to New Mexico and settled in their last home in Albuquerque.  In their later years both of the Halls had begun to spend less time making prints and more time painting. Hall soon focused all of his attention to perfecting his skill as a watercolorist until his death in 1981.  

Arthur Hall spent 25 years of his career focused on developing his skill in etching.   In discussing the quality of this work, C.A. Seward once said, “Mr. Hall knows the possibilities of his medium.  His viewpoint is always that of an etcher and he renders his subject in line.  His needle seems able to accomplish anything, perhaps because he never asks it to become a brush.  He is an etcher first and last, and his glory is in the brilliant purity of the etched line and the burr of drypoint.”  Hall’s etchings received notable, national acclaim.  In both 1927 and 1937 he was awarded two prestigious prizes and in addition was selected to create the Gift Print, not just for the Prairie Print Makers, but also the Chicago Society of Etchers and the Printmakers Society of California. Hall typically identified his prints with a signature and in rare instances his initials in the plate.  He signed his prints in pencil below the right corner of the image.  In a few rare cases the total number in the edition also appears in pencil below the image.

                                       

Images above: photograph and promotional brochure for the Hall’s summer art school at Rancho del Rio in New Mexico, 2 of Hall’s etchings, “Field Hand” and “Bird Creek in Thaw”, an untitled watercolor by Hall and a photographs of Arthur from 1930 and about 1958 and below, small drawing titled, “Alameda.”