Don Quixote sets out

Reginald Hallward was deeply involved in the Arts and Crafts, designing stained glass and other Church furnishings, and running the Woodlands Press at Shorne, near Gravesend between 1895 and 1913. There he produced books by himself and his wife Adelaide Bloxham, printing them lithographically with hand colouring in a style indebted to William Blake. His painted oeuvre appears firmly rooted in the English Romantic tradition. The moonlit depiction of a Cotswolds farm in the present picture carries echoes of the nocturnes of Samuel Palmer for instance. He worked closely with James Guthrie, and it is interesting to contemplate who influenced whom. As well as exhibiting at the Arts and Crafts Society, he showed at both the Grosvenor Gallery, and the Royal Academy, as well as at the New English Art Club.

The story of Don Quixote clearly had some special resonance for Hallward as he painted at least one other version of the subject (see C. Wood, exhibition catalogue, 1984, no. 3, illustrated).