That the sitter was a lesbian is clearly on record as was the furore caused around the publication of her novel The Well of Loneliness (1928), which makes the argument for lesbian rights and same-sex marriage. A decade after this portrait was painted, her work would be banned by the British state for being obscene.

Hall isn’t dressed in the conventional female fashions of the day, instead shown as an Edwardian male aristocrat complete with starched collar and monocle, perhaps as an act of rebellion, perhaps as an influencer of queer fashion and touchpoint of lesbian sartorial style. It would be too simplistic to focus purely on the depiction of Hall’s outfit in this portrait though, for there is also queer grief on display. At the time of painting, Hall was in mourning for Mabel Batten and there’s an air of melancholy and loss here.

The curator’s choice of where to hang this portrait might have a queer quality to it. Drawing back from the painting, we notice it’s sandwiched between Winston Churchill (NPG L250) and a youthful King George VI (NPG L214) in full naval uniform. On one hand, this places Hall firmly in polite, Edwardian society – part of a man’s world, close to the establishment. Yet there’s something of a pushback against authority here, having a censored lesbian writer placed between two men who would go on to run and rule the country. Hall held her own in a world dominated by straight men, and she’s still holding her own today.

The text above is from ‘Does this portrait look queer to you?’ my winning essay in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Critical Writing competition, 2024. You can read the full text here.