Written by Neil Greenhalgh
It seems that Walter J. Hall, painter of Bury Art Museum’s Old Blackford Bridge, has not yet been written in to art history. Indeed it is difficult to find any information about Walter J. Hall at all. We do know that Bury Art Museum have eight paintings by Hall, all landscapes; whilst Nantwich museum have one painting, a portrait of the artist’s father James Hall.
The surface of the paintings themselves are easier to locate within art history than the artist. The thick oil paint, solid forms, and direct application are synonymous with modern British art, or British post-impressionism. The application of heavy pigmented, undiluted paint, is reminiscent of some of Hall’s better known contemporaries, such as Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, and Spencer Gore; yet his dramatic, depiction of protuberant clouds in particular hark back to John Constable – a common feature for this period, characterised by the overdue moment of British modern art. We can see that the date under Hall’s signature on the bottom right of Old Blackford Bridge tells us that it was painted in 1910, the same year of Roger Fry’s ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ exhibition at Grafton Galleries in London which featured artists such as Gaugin, Van Gogh, and Cézanne. It is very possible that Hall was aware of this, or even attended this highly inspirational show. Yet, we cannot know for sure.
Son of local Nantwich historian and school Headmaster James Hall, Walter J. Hall is perhaps best known for the portrait of his father that now hangs in the main room of Nantwich Museum.
Painted in 1943, 29 years after his father’s death, the physical painting itself was lost to art history, until it was found with the help of local Nantwich historian John Lake under a flight of stairs at the museum, suffering from a broken frame and dirty condition. It now hangs permanently in the museum after undergoing restoration financed by grants from Cheshire County Council and the North West Museums Service, in recognition of its importance to local history.
Continuing this story of lost and found, the material subject of Hall’s Old Blackford Bridge, now missing almost half of its structure, can be itself difficult to locate. The best way to find it is through Springwater Park, along overgrown, weathered, and forgotten trails. The route is made more difficult and more dangerous through years of flooding and subsidence as well as the industrial remains of the old calico printing works demolished in the 1950s. The route is not well marked or well trodden, I first found it myself through spontaneous exploration – in other words trying to get lost.
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen once said ‘adventure is just bad planning’, but getting lost can make stories more captivating, activities more venturesome, and history more fascinating.
To be lost, is to be somewhere unexpected, somewhere forgotten, or somewhere uncontactable – off-grid. A person can be lost in their own thoughts, as a painting can be lost under a staircase. And perhaps paradoxically, we sometimes desire to get lost, in order to truly ‘find ourselves’.
Searching for lost bits of art history, or lost woodland trails, is an adventure into the unknown. Whatever you discover within the unknown can be like buried treasure – whether it has higher significance or importance to the field of particular study is beside the point. Some things are lost, waiting to be found, and their own particular rediscovery is their own particular renaissance.
References
Art UK website https://artuk.org/discover/artists/hall-walter-j-18661947
Frances Spalding, British Art Since 1900, 1986, London, 37-45
Nantwich Museum website: https://nantwichmuseum.org.uk/permanent-exhibitions/famous-nantwich-people/james-hall/
Love Springwater Park 