Harold 'Hal' Hattam (1913-1994), doctor, artist and art collector, came to Australia from his native Scotland at the age of seven. Establishing a medical practice in Melbourne, he began to paint with no formal training. After falling in with a group including Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, John Perceval, Leonard French, Fred Williams and Clifton Pugh he abandoned medicine for a time to concentrate on his art. Between 1962 and 1988 he held a number of solo exhibitions, mostly of seascapes, that drew admiration from critics including Patrick McCaughey. He participated in many group shows. Hattam and his wife Kate collected a large body of works by artists in their circle and beyond. Patrick McCaughey has said that they were the 'first private collectors to accept and admire [Fred] Williams's very different kind of art in a wholehearted way'. From 1958 onward they built up a substantial group of his works.
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