Arthur Derek Hill, , (6 December 1916 – 30 July 2000) was an English portrait and landscape painter, long resident in Ireland.

Life and work

Glebe House - Home of artist Derek Hill - geograph

Early life

Hill was born at Southampton, in Hampshire, the son of a wealthy sugar trader.

Career

He first worked as a theatre designer in Leningrad in the 1930s, and later as an historian. In the Second World War he registered as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

and worked on a farm. His long association with Ireland began when he visited Glenveagh Castle, County Donegal to paint the portrait of the Irish-American art collector, Henry McIlhenny, whose grandfather had emigrated to the United States from the nearby village of Milford, and who subsequently made a fortune from his patent gas meter. Hill began to enjoy increased success as a portrait painter from the 1960s; his subjects including many notable

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

s, musicians, politicians and statesmen, such as broadcaster

Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late Lat ...

, Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek and the Prince of Wales. He was also an enthusiastic art collector and traveller, with a wide range of friends such as Bryan Guinness and

Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...

. Greta Garbo visited Hill in the 1970s, a visit which formed inspiration for Frank McGuinness' 2010 play ''Greta Garbo Came to Donegal''. In 1981, he donated to the state his home, St. Columb's Rectory, near the village of Churchill, County Donegal, which he had owned since 1954, along with a considerable collection including work by Pablo Picasso,

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, Graham Sutherland,

Anna Ticho Anna Ticho (; 27 October 1894 – 1 March 1980) was an Israeli artist who became famous for her drawings of the Jerusalem hills. Beit Ticho, the house in Jerusalem that she shared with her husband is now a branch of the Israel Museum and a caf ...

and Jack Butler Yeats. An exhibition of his work and personal art collection can be seen at the house and associated

Glebe Gallery Glebe House and ''Glebe Gallery'' are located just outside the town of Letterkenny near Churchill. The English portrait and landscape painter Derek Hill lived and worked there from 1954 until he presented the house and his art collection to the ...

at Churchill, near Letterkenny. Another collection of his work is held at Mottisfont Abbey. Many of his landscapes portray scenes from Tory Island, where he had a painting hut for years, and started and then mentored the artists' community there, teaching the local fishermen how to paint. This led on to the informal but busy "Tory School" of artists such as James Dixon and Anton Meenan, who found that they had the time to paint and used their wild surroundings as a dramatic subject. Hill was made a CBE in 1997. A retrospective exhibition was arranged for and by him at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1998. In 1999, he was made an honorary Irish citizen by Irish President Mary McAleese. He died at a London hospital on 30 July 2000, aged 83, and is buried in Hampshire in the South of England with his parents. Memorial services were held for him in Dublin at St Patrick's Cathedral, as well as St James's Church, Piccadilly, London, and his local church in Trentagh, County Donegal.

Biographies

In 1987 Grey Gowrie's illustrated essay on Hill was published by Quartet. Gowrie considered his landscapes to be as good as those of Jack Yeats. A fuller biography of Hill by Bruce Arnold was published in 2010. * Bruce Arnold: ''Derek Hill'', London: Quartet, 2010,

Rome and the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship

Derek Hill had a great love of Rome and was the Director of Fine Arts at the

British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is an interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture. History The British School at Rome (BSR) was established in 1901 and granted a UK Royal Charter in 1912. Its mission is " ...

(BSR) for about five years during the 1950s. During his lively two tenures, he encouraged resident art scholars, which included Anthony Fry and John Bratby, to travel throughout Italy, whilst, in the academy itself, Hill fostered a jovial, creative atmosphere. In 1989, shortly before Hill's death, he established a charitable trust which provides annual bursaries for the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship residencies at the BSR. The scholarship is granted through an open, competitive selection of British and Irish artists in the fields of drawing and painting, providing a stipend and three months full-board in one of the

Edwin Austin Abbey Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852August 1, 1911) was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings ...

studios.Macmillan, P., 2007. The Grants Register: The Complete Guide to Postgraduate Funding Worldwide, Palgrave Macmillan. Winners of the award have included

Emma Stibbon Emma Stibbon (born 1 March 1962) is a Bristol-based British artist and Royal Academician. Career Emma Stibbon was born on 1 March 1962 in Münster, Germany, and studied at the Portsmouth College of Art, Goldsmiths College and the University o ...

RA and David O'Kane.

Footnotes

RTÉ News RTÉ News and Current Affairs ( ga, Nuacht agus Cúrsaí Reatha RTÉ), also known as RTÉ News (''Nuacht RTÉ''), is the national news service provided by Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Its services include local, nationa ...