London born, Ballarat based artist and teacher.
Henry Hall was educated at South Kensington Art School, England.
In the Creswick Grammar School’s 1882 annual report the headmaster, Sammuel Fiddian, reported on the appointment of Hall as art teacher:
'Impressed with the importance of a knowledge of drawing, I have long wished to include it in our regular routine. This year I have been able to accomplish my wish. I have secured the services of Mr. H. J. Hall, of Ballarat, an able teacher; under whom every pupil of the grammar school is instructed in this most useful as well as elegant accomplishment; and I am glad to say that, with a few exceptions, the pupils manifest a qualifying interest in the study.’
Hall was drawing teacher at Creswick Grammar School, Victoria, from 1882 to the mid-1880s. His most famous student there was Percy Lindsay (1870-1952), who under his guidance became a talented art student, receiving many prizes for drawing. Lindsay later became a significant landscape painter, book illustrator and black and white artist who contributed to the Bulletin . From 1885 to 1912 Hall was a teacher in technical and artistic drawing at the Ballarat School of Mines, Victoria.
He was appointed Freehand Model Drawing teacher at the Mechanics Institute School of Design (Ballarat West Art School) in 1885. Henry Hall was appointed Head of the Art Department in 1885, and lectured in freehand and model drawing. He started teaching drawing at the Ballarat School of Mines in 1889. Over many years Hall advertised private tuition, at 'Ferndale’, 25 Eyre Street, Ballarat, in Drawing, Painting and Perspective. Henry Hall became seriously ill in 1917 and was granted two successive months sick leave by the Ballarat School of Mines Council, however he died on 18 May. At the time of Hall’s death the Ballarat School of Mines Annual Report for 1917 noted: “Mr Hall was a conscientious teacher, and had been a member of Staff for 32 years. His loss was keenly felt by every member of the Institution.”
