Dreaming

Charles Edward Hallé was the son of Sir Charles Hallé, the German-born pianist and orchestra conductor, who emigrated to England during the revolution of 1848. His first professors were Richard Doyle and Carlo Marochetti when he entered Royal Academy Schools. At seventeen years of age he travelled to France and worked with Victor Mottez, a student of Ingres. From France he travelled to Italy where he studied in Venice. In 1866 Hallé exhibited his first works at the Royal Academy. A close friend of Burne-Jones, Watts, Herkomer and Alma-Tadema, Hallé’s work was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and members of the Aesthetic movement. This enigmatic and beautiful study of a woman is characteristic of his aesthetic work being neither a portrait nor a subject picture. As well as his work as a painting of history subjects, genre scenes and portraits Hallé was an important gallery manager. In 1877, along with J Comyns Carr, he assisted Lord Coutts Lindsay in the creation of the Grosvenor Gallery and in 1888, with Burne-Jones, he founded the New Gallery in Regent’s Street. He exhibited frequently in these two galleries.