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
