Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Charles (1720?-1783)

1185037Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 24 — Hall, Charles (1720?-1783)1890Robert Edmund Graves

HALL, CHARLES (1720?–1783), line engraver, born about 1720, was brought up as a writing engraver, but by his own exertions he made so much progress in art that, although he never rose above mediocrity, he became a fair engraver of portraits, medals, coins, and other antiquities. His best works are his portraits, many of which are faithful copies of earlier engravings. They include portraits of Thomas Howard, second duke of Norfolk, and Henry Fitz Alan, earl of Arundel, after Holbein: Mary I; Thomas Goodrich, bishop of Ely; Sir George Barnes, lord mayor of London; William Harvey, Clarenceux king-at-arms; Jack Adams, the astrologer; Thomas Pellet, M.D., and William Bullock, the comedian, said to be after Hogarth; Catharine, duchess of Buckingham, and Mary Sidney, countess of Pembroke, from the plates by Magdalena and Simon Van de Passe; Sir Thomas More, and William Alexander, earl of Stirling, from the plates by Marshall; and Sir Francis Wortley, bart., from that by Hertocks. Hall died at his lodgings in Grafton Street, Soho, London, on 5 Feb. 1783.

[Strutt's Biog. Dict. of Engravers, 1785-6, ii. 5; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves, 1886-9, i. 619; Nichols's Literary Illustrations, v. 436.]