Preparing for the ball

Hallé helped Sir Coutts Lindsay establish the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. In many ways this is an archetypal Grosvenor picture. With its mantra 'Art for Art's sake', the gallery became a flagship for the Aesthetic movement and promoted almost subjectless pictures whose sole raison d'être was to be beautiful. The interior here is clearly imaginary and Hallé has crammed it with objects likely to appeal to collectors with 'aesthetic' taste. An Italian cassone is placed beneath an ornately framed Old Master, while a stamped leather screen forms a backdrop to the protagonists. The girls are wearing 'aesthetic' dress, while the 18th Century is cleverly evoked in the device of including a garland to link the figures. The viewer is reminded of the group portraits of Reynolds and Romney executed a century before.