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Lady Palmer's Cottage, Runswick
Watercolours by Rowland Henry Hill, 9¼"x11", signed.
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Staithes, the Beck with a Train on the Viaduct
Watercolours, 9"x12½", signed and dated194?. Surprisingly, this is the only picture we have ever had by a Staithes Group artist which shows the viaduct with a train!
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Watercolours by Rowland Henry Hill, 9½"x13¾", signed, inscribed and dated 1922.
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Charing Cross and the Strand
Watercolours by Rowland Hill, 9¾"x13", inscribed with title and dated 1921.
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Watercolours, 9¼"x12½", signed. Though less usual than his Yorkshire pictures, we have had a number of London watercolours by Rowland Hill over the years.
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Whitby Harbour, Showing the Abbey and St. Mary's Church
A watercolour by Rowland Hill, signed and dated 1932.
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Staithes, Looking Towards Cowbar
Watercolours, 9¾" x13½", signed by Rowland Hill.
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In watercolours measuring 7"x11", signed and dated 1933 this picture by Rowland Hill is an unusual subject for the artist. It is the Roman Catholic Church in the village, the C of E church being dedicated to St.Ann. This is a sensitive and freely painted watercolour.
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 ROWLAND HENRY HILL 1873 – 1952
The son of a Halifax cloth merchant, Rowland Hill began painting as a child. Reluctant for him to choose art as a career, his father insisted on his joining the family business, but allowed him to attend part time classes at Halifax School of Art and life classes at Bradford Technical College.
The family holidayed at Runswick Bay where the young Rowland met Ralph Hedley who helped and encouraged him with his art. At the same time he was, consciously or otherwise, sabotaging his career in his father’s office by decorating his paper work with imaginary portraits. Hill’s
father’s annoyance at this coincided with advice from Hedley to send an example of his work to Sir Herbert von Herkomer in the hope of his being accepted into that artist’s Art School in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
He was accepted and enrolled in 1895. He was appreciated by Herkomer both as a person and as an artist and twice accompanied him on painting tours of Bavaria.
On completing his formal studies Hill returned to Halifax, but spent his summers in Runswick Bay. It was there that he met his future wife, Dorothy Turner, who came from a wealthy
Sheffield family, as did Hannah Mayor. She is still fondly remembered in Staithes as ‘Very kind and a real lady.’ After their marriage they settled in Ellerby and remained there until Hill’s death.
Hill’s work is very distinctive. His watercolours, which constitute the bulk of his work, are
characterised by long brushstrokes of pure colour. Sometimes these are placed so close together that they produce the effect of solid colour but, more often, they are allowed to stand on their own, giving his work a feeling of exceptional vibrancy and sometimes, a sense of excitement. I regard him as one of the markedly innovative members of the Group.
In his later life he produced more ‘pot boilers’, often in the literal sense as money was often a problem and he would pay bills with a painting. He would often paint outdoors and sell his work directly to tourists. He was able to continue to produce extremely good work throughout his life, however. His work in oils is rare, but as in his watercolours, he used long, thin strokes, but built them up into a solid surface of paint.
It is more important than ever to look at strokes rather than signatures as the latter are seen increasingly added to pictures that bear no resemblance to the work of Rowland Hill.
There was no subject he was afraid to tackle: portraits and child studies, still lives, interior scenes, the many continental cities which he visited and, most of all, landscapes and village scenes. It was even reported in the Halifax Daily Courier (November 11th 1931) that he ‘made several sketches after the termination of the war, when fighting was finished, but when war
conditions still prevailed on the front.’ The Imperial War Museum has a watercolour of the Ypres Salient by him. He also has works in public collections in Derby, Gateshead, Leeds, Scarborough, South Shields and Whitby and in the collection of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institute.
He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Walker Gallery Liverpool and the Yorkshire Union of
Artists where he was a Council Member and Vice President. He became a founder member of the Staithes Art Club in 1901.
Bibliography:
Staithes Group Centenary Exhibition, Rosamund Jordan 2003
The Staithes Group, Peter Phillips, Phillips and Sons, Marlow, 1993
The Yorkshire Union of Artists 1888 – 1922, Dennis Child, Leeds Philosophical and
Literary Society Ltd, Leeds 2001
Halifax Daily Courier November 11th 1931
The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 – 1940, J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, Antique
Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge 1976
Thanks to Mrs. Elizabeth Toop and Mr. Andrew Hill for additional information.
© Rosamund Jordan 2005 (Please contact me before quoting from the above information publically, and credit myself and this website)
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