Mr and Mrs William Hallett ('The Morning Walk')
- Artist: Thomas Gainsborough
- Date: 1785
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "Mr and Mrs William Hallett ('The Morning Walk')" by Thomas Gainsborough. Painted in 1785, the style draws on the work of earlier painters Watteau and Van Dyck, with a delicate poetic quality largely achieved through Gainsborough’s light, feathery brushwork.
Here you see William and Elizabeth Hallett arm in arm on a morning walk, accompanied by their Pomeranian sheepdog. The couple may be wearing their wedding clothes – Elizabeth's ivory silk gown is caught at the waist with a black silk band, while her husband wears a black silk velvet frock-suit. Gainsborough's use of slanting brushstrokes in the sky and foliage gives the impression of movement.
The portrait has been seen as a universal statement about wedded bliss, but it was also commissioned by William Hallett himself, who paid Gainsborough £126 for it in 1786. The picture is as much a portrait of the romance of young love as it is a likeness of the couple.
See it in person
Mr and Mrs William Hallett ('The Morning Walk') hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
