Hall was brought to Boston in early childhood with his mother and younger brother. He entered Harvard in 1899 beginning in architecture but later transferring to art. While at Harvard he was an editor of Lampoon and did pen and ink drawings and covers for the magazine. He also did art work for The Bookman, a journal published by Dodd, Mead & Col, and bookplates for friends. He also studied at the Boston Museum School with William Paxton.
In 1909 Hall married Evelyn Ames, an accomplished pianist and daughter of Oliver Ames, a former governor of Massachusetts. The couple set off for Paris, where Hall studied at the Academie Julian and with Henri-Paul Royer. Upon the couple's return from Europe (1912) they established homes in Boston and Gloucester and engaged in an active social life that included elaborate entertainments in their homes. After his wife's death in 1940, he married Ariel Wellington, a professional harpist, in 1943.
Hall's first etchings treated landscape themes, but he soon turned to European subjects, translating drawings he had made abroad, and renewing his inspiration with a return trip in 1923 when he made a special study of some of the smaller towns in France.
Later Hall turned his concentration to painting, doing portraits and still lives featuring English and Chinese porcelains. Hall was a regular exhibitor at St. Botolph Club, the Copley Society, the Guild of Boston Artists and Doll and Richards.
The portrait of Hall is by Leslie P. Thompson.
