Traveled to Portland, OR in 1853-54. Active in Cleveland, OH from 1857-60. Lived in South America from 1861-66. Returning to New York NY in 1867, he sailed to England and France and then spent three years of art study in Munich. Upon his return to New York in 1870, he was active there for a few years and then settled in Chicago. He was in Kansas in 1878, Montana in 1885, and then made another trip to Portland, OR.

Exhibitions: National Academy of Design, 1873; International Industrial Exposition, Chicago, 1887.

Collections: Chicago Historical Society; Kansas State Historical Society; New York Historical Society; Wyoming StateMuseum; National Portrait Gallery; Oregon Historical Society; Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR; Montana Club; Montana Historical Society.

The following information was submitted in July of 2006 by Cam McDougal:

I am writing from the town where Cyrenius Hall was born, Fort Erie, Ontario. I inherited several paintings by this artist through my aunt who was a cousin of Cyrenius. He did numerous portraits of the Lewis family who were early settlers here. I have one of Katherine Lewis who was my aunt's grandmother. Another of my aunt's mother Katherine Lewis Seabert, and one of my aunt's aunt Grace Lewis. I think they and other family portraits throughout the Lewis Family were done ca 1865.

There was a Dr. Cyrenius Hall who was the Public Health Commissioner here and who was the father of the artist. The people mentioned in the portraits above are buried in the churchyard of St Pauls Anglican Church. Cyrenius Sr. was instrumental in building this church.

The Hall family were early settlers in New Hampshire and some how made their way here. They married into the Lewis family. Hence the reason for the many paintings of the Lewis family. There were many more in other branches of the family. Neither of the 3 portraits are signed. I have three still life paintings which are signed. I also have two landscape paintings done in South America. Not signed.

Cyrenius Jr. accompanied his brother Henry to South America. It was suggested that Henry who was consumptive go there for health reasons. He subsequently died there and Cyrenius eventally returned to North America. He traveled the west extensively where he did the majority of his painting. When the Senior Hall died he was summoned home to look after the doctor's business affairs. By this time the senior Hall and his wife had moved to Southern Ontario. Cyrenius is little know for his art work in Ontario and gets scant mention in a reference book on Ontario artists. I am aware that other sources state that Cyrenius was born in Minnesota. This is absolutely wrong.

Hall made trips to the West in the 1850s via the Oregon Trail. He painted scenery in and around Portland before moving south to San Francisco where he painted a huge panorama of the Overland Trail and of California.

From 1861 to 1866 he lived in South America where he had gone for his brother's health. He pursued his profession there until the threat of war between Chile and Spain forced his return to the States.

Returning to NYC, in 1867 he sailed to England and France, and then spent three years of art study in Munich. Upon his return to New York, he was active there for a few years and then settled in Chicago; however, he continued to be peripatetic. He was in Kansas in 1878, Montana in 1885, and then made another trip to Portland. Hall died in Chicago in 1896.

Exh: NAD, 1873.

In: Chicago Historical Society; NMAA (Chief Joseph); Kansas State Historical Society (Fort Snelling); Wyoming State Museum (Yellowstone).

Cyrenius Hall was born in Fort Erie, Ontario in 1830. He moved with his family to Westminster town-ship near London. He was trained by the Garrison Officers and won many Upper Canada art exhibitions from 1847 to 1854 and then moved to Chicago, Illinois.

His family arrived in North America in 1529 and built the first church in what later became Boston, Massachusetts. Cyrenius Sr. was an installations builder for the British from 1809 to 21. He was the coroner at Fort Erie where the first Anglican church was built with a petition to the governor of U. C. to use stone blocks from the Garrison, which later became St. Pauls at Ft. Erie. Cyrenius Sr. was also part of the group that built the first church at Westminster - Halls Mill - Byron Ontario.

Information submitted as a bulletin to AskART, December 2004, by Milyn Hall

Cyrennius Hall was an itinerant artist who painted Western landscapes in a lumanistic style. He first went to Portland, Oregon in 1853 and 1854 over the Oregon Trail. From there he executed views of Mount Hood and Mount Rainier.

Hall was active in the American West from 1852-1878, and especially in the 1870's. He again returned to the Portland area in the late 1860's. During his travels throughout the West he painted for a period in Canada.

Very little is known of Hall's professional studies other than he did go abroad to Munich further his career. In addition he was active in Chicago and New York City. His penchant for travel even took him as far as South America on a painting sojourn.

His single most notoriety as a painter came from the fact that he painted Chief Joseph on his perilous journey to the Colville reservation in the State of Washington in 1878. A portrait of the famous chief done by Hall hung in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Hall exhibited at the National Academy of Design, New York City in 1873. His work can be found in a number of public and private collections.

Collections:
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon