Biography
William Hallé (b. Richmond, Surrey, UK 1912 - d. 1998) attended evening classes at Bethnal Green Men’s Institute. During war service in the Army he joined local art schools where he was stationed, after demobilisation continuing at Battersea Men’s Institute and working at night as a telephonist. He visited France during the war and later took trips to South Africa, where he showed solo at Alder Gallery, Johannesburg. He was related to the Hallé who founded the orchestra through his father and his mother was a direct descendant of Sir Peter Lely, court painter to Charles II.
Jack Beddington included Hallé in his book Young Artists of Promise (1957). Hallé took part in mixed shows, showed one-man at Wildenstein several times and had a string of solo exhibitions at O’Hana Gallery, where he painted a patio mural. When it closed on the death of its owner Hallé “could not get another gallery to take me on”; he filled sketch-books, but did little painting for about 20 years. Revived interest in the mid-1990s prompted him to paint again, and he showed at Bartley Drey Gallery. Latterly lived in sheltered accommodation in southwest London.
