Adrian Keith Graham Hill (24 March 1895 – 1977) was a British artist, writer,
art therapist, educator and broadcaster. Hill served with the
Honourable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and was the first artist commissioned by the
Imperial War Museum to record the conflict on the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
.
He wrote many books about painting and drawing, and in the 1950s and early 1960s presented a BBC children's television programme called ''Sketch Club''.
Education
Hill was born in
Charlton, London, and educated at
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose o ...
. He went on to study at the
St John's Wood Art School between 1912 and 1914. After his war service Hill studied at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...
in 1919 and 1920.
World War I
At the start of World War I Hill enlisted with the
Honourable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...
and, due to his artistic abilities was assigned to a Scouting and Sniping Section. This work often involved operating in front of the Allied trenches to sketch the disposition of the enemy. Later in life, Hill recalled a typical such patrol into
no man's land:
"I advanced in short rushes, mostly on my hands and knees with my sketching kit dangling round my neck. As I slowly approached, the wood gradually took a more definite shape, and as I crept nearer I saw that what was hidden from our own line, now revealed itself as a cunningly contrived observation post in one of the battered trees."
In 1917 Hill became the first artist commissioned by the, then newly created,
Imperial War Museum to record scenes on the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
. Between 1917 and 1919 Hill produced 180 pen-and-ink drawings showing the examples of the devastation in France and Belgium and the work of troops of different nationalities in the trenches. These drawings were highly regarded but the IWM rejected a number of additional paintings submitted by Hill as being outside his brief.
Later life
On returning to civilian life, Hill completed his studies at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...
and then painted professionally for a living. Hill also taught at both the
Hornsey School of Art and the
Westminster School of Art. His own work combined elements of impressionism and surrealism as well as more conventional representations, and was widely displayed at major art galleries during his lifetime, both in Britain and abroad.
In 1938, while convalescing from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...
at the
King Edward VII Sanatorium
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
in
Midhurst, he passed the time by drawing nearby objects from his hospital bed, and found the process helpful in aiding his own recovery. In 1939,
occupational therapy was introduced to the sanatorium for the first time and Hill was invited to teach drawing and painting to other patients - at first to injured soldiers returning from the
war, and then to general civilian patients.
Hill found that the practice of Art seemed to help to divert the patients and to relieve their mental distress.
Hill believed that art appreciation also aided recovery from illness and was involved, with the
British Red Cross Society, in setting up a scheme whereby reproductions of famous artists' works were lent to hospital wards all over the country. Speakers were also engaged - including Hill himself - to talk to patients about the artworks. By 1950 this picture-lending scheme had spread to nearly 200 hospitals, and there was a waiting list.
The artist
Edward Adamson
Edward Adamson (31 May 1911 – 3 February 1996) was a British artist, "the father of Art Therapy in Britain", and the creator of the Adamson Collection.
Early years: Sale, Tunbridge Wells, Fleet Street, WW2 (1911–1945)
Edward Adamson was ...
joined the programme in 1946 as it was extended to the long-stay mental asylums, and started classes at
Netherne Hospital in Surrey. Adamson continued at Netherne for 35 years, and was both a major influence on the British development of art therapy for people with major mental disorders, and also the creator of the Adamson Collection.
The Adamson Collection of about 6000 drawings, paintings, ceramics and sculptures by people compelled to live at Netherne was at
Lambeth Hospital in South London between 1997 and 2012, and has now being re-located to the
Wellcome Library
The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of m ...
in anticipation of a securer future in several international institutions.
Hill worked tirelessly to promote art therapy, eventually becoming president of the ''British Association of Art Therapists'', founded in 1964, though he found himself at odds with its increasingly psychoanalytical orientation.
British Association of Art Therapists
/ref> In 1968 Hill was elected president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
Ideas about art therapy
Hill apparently coined the term " art therapy" in 1942, and in 1945 published his ideas in the book ''Art Versus Illness''. Hill thought that when the patient's physical resistance was at its lowest this somehow rendered the "animal ego" quiescent and allowed the creative powers of the "spiritual essence" to come through in works of art. On recovery, these creative powers would tend to wane back to the "pictorial commonplace." He recognized that war was not only physically destructive but also damaged "minds, bodies and hopes" and that the need for psychological healing was even more important than mere physical repair of "property and estate." He believed that the practice of art, "in sickness and in health," could turn society away from war by making artistic creativity more appreciated. He saw art therapy as becoming an integral part of the National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
.
Books by Adrian Hill (selected)
*''On the Mastery of Watercolour Painting'' (Pitman, 1939)
*''Art Versus Illness'' (G. Allen and Unwin, 1945)
*''Painting Out Illness'' (Williams & Norgate, 1951)
*''A Book of Trees'' (Faber and Faber, 1951)
*''What Shall We Draw?'' (Blandford, 1957)
*''The Beginner's Book of Oil Painting'' (Blandford, 1958)
*''The Beginner's Book of Watercolour Painting'' (Blandford, 1959)
*''Sketching and Painting Indoors'' (Blandford, 1961)
*''Sketching and Painting Out of Doors'' (Blandford, 1961)
*''How to Draw'' (MacMillan, 1963)
*''How to Paint in Watercolours (Pan Piper, 1967)
*''How to Paint Landscapes and Seascapes'' (Blandford, 1964)
*''The Beginner's Book of Drawing and Painting Flowers'' (Bl
*''Drawing and Painting Plants and Flowers'' (Blandford, 1965)
*''Drawing and Painting Architecture in Landscape'' (Blandford, 1966)
*''Further Steps in Oil Painting'' (Blandford, 1970)
*''Further Steps in Drawing and Sketching'' (Blandford, 1972)
*''Drawing and Painting Trees'' (Blandford, 1977)
*''Adrian Hill's Watercolour Painting for Beginners'' (Cassells, 1994)
*''Adrian Hill's Oil Painting for Beginners'' (Cassells, 1994)
*''Beginner's Book of Anatomy'' (Dover, 2007)
*''Drawing and Painting Trees'' (Dover, 2008)
References
External links
*
Hill's cover
of the 13 May 1932 issue of the ''Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...
'', depicting the newly-opened Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The m ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Adrian
1895 births
1977 deaths
20th-century English painters
English male painters
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
Alumni of St John's Wood Art School
Art therapists
British Army personnel of World War I
British war artists
English watercolourists
Honourable Artillery Company soldiers
Landscape artists
People educated at Dulwich College
People from Charlton, London
World War I artists
20th-century English male artists