The son of animal portraitist
Harry Hall,[3] Sydney Hall was educated at
Merchant Taylors' School.[4] He decided on a career as an artist while at
Oxford University and joined the staff of The Graphic, an illustrated newspaper, shortly after its foundation in late 1869. He immediately established his name with a series of vivid drawings made at the
front during the
Franco-Prussian War.[5]
As stated in the contemporary publication The Art Journal, his drawings of the
Parnell Commission were among his finest achievements in the medium of graphic journalism: "he was in court the whole time, busy with a swift revealing pencil which missed no turn of affairs."[5]
Hall married Emma Holland (1846/7–1894), in 1877; the couple had already produced a son,
Henry R. H. Hall (1873-1930), who became assistant keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the
British Museum. Following the death of his first wife, Hall married the painter
Mary Gow (1851–1929), in 1907. Hall died at his home in London on 15 December 1922.[6]
Gallery
Escaped Leopard Battles with Dogs at
Raglan Castle, circa 1875, by Sydney P. Hall
^Minchin, J. C. G., Our public schools, their influence on English history; Charter house, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors', Rugby, St. Paul's Westminster, Winchester (London, 1901), p. 195.