May 07, 2007 - Sale 2113

Sale 2113 - Lot 112

Price Realized: $ 1,440
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
WILLIAM HAINES HALL (1903-1977) CROSSING GREAT SALT LAKE ON SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 1940.
23 1/8x15 7/8 inches.
Condition A-: minor creases in margins and corners.
Hall was a commercial artist who worked in San Francisco. Along with Maynard Dixon and Maurice Logan (who also designed posters for the Southern Pacific), Hall was an active member of The Thirteen Watercolorists (which eventually became the Society of Western Artists). Although he allegedly designed posters for San Francisco's Bohemian Club, of which he was a member, none have yet surfaced. The Southern Pacific Railroad began advertising their streamlined trains via posters in 1936. "The artists communicated modernity and speed by rendering the train in a seamless watercolor wash, removing all trace of rivets and vestibules . . . [including this] dramatic modern rendition" (Zega p. 111). Zega 142.