George Henry Hall was born on September 21, 1825, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire.

[1][nb 1] His father was a successful lumber dealer and his ancestors had come to the United States in the early 18th century from Ireland.

[5] Hall went to Europe with Eastman Johnson to study in 1849, funded by the sale of genre scenes and portraits.

[3] Mid 19th century still life paintings became popular, and several artists created "opulent botanical arrangements in which the beauty and succulence of each flower or fruit replaced the earlier emphasis on compositional structure."

Hall, Paul Lacroix, Severin Roesen and John F. Francis created such paintings.

"[7] Hall — along with Calvert Vaux, Frederic Edwin Church, Jervis McEntee, Eastman Johnson and Sanford Robinson Gifford — were friends and members of the Century Association in New York City, where they sang, laughed, drank and smoked.

[8] Eleven people were killed on July 4, 1857, in the Dead Rabbits Riot, a battle between the Bowery Boys and a gang called the Dead Rabbits in Manhattan's worst slums located on the Lower East Side of the city.

[1] He lived in Paris, Rome and Düsseldorf for 23 years[2] and traveled to Spain and Italy,[3] and made popular paintings of peasants there.

In Kaaterskill Clove in Palenville, Hall built a home and studio near La Belle Falls by 1893 when his photo was taken there by Lionel De Lisser.

In the summers they shared a studio in Palenville in the New York Catskill Mountains from about 1908 until Hall died in 1913.

[3] When he died, Hall left his home and property in the Catskills to Brownscombe,[14] including the painting Danaë and the Golden Shower by John Smibert.