Mr and Mrs William Hallett


Mr and Mrs William Hallett is a 1785 oil on canvas painting by the British painter Thomas Gainsborough. It is popularly known as The Morning Walk and is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

History

Gainsborough painted the work in the summer of 1785, shortly before the marriage of the subjects, WIlliam Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen then both aged 21.
After Mrs Hallett's death the painting was offered for sale at Foster's in 1834, though it remained unsold. Later the ownership was disputed. In April 1884 it was sold from the Hilliard collection to Agnew's who sold it on, eight days later, to Sir N. M. Rothschild. The painting was acquired for the National Gallery in 1954, from the collection of Lord Rothschild, for £30,000, the Art Fund providing a grant of £5000 towards the purchase price.
On 18 March 2017, the painting was attacked by a man with a sharp object. The painting received two scratches of about 1-metre and 65cm long in the incident.. After 10 days of restoration, the painting went back on display.

Influence

Gainsborough's composition was the inspiration for George Romney's portrait of Sir Christopher and Lady Sykes, known as The Evening Walk.