Harold Hitchcock (23 May 1914 – 8 August 2009), born Raymond Hitchcock,Obituary, ''Guardian'', 16 August 2009 was an English visionary

landscape artist Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

Biography

Born in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

, London into a family of artists (descended from the animal artist

George Stubbs George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Reynolds or Gainsborough ...

on his mother’s side), Harold was inspired to paint as a result of an ecstatic experience he had as a young boy whilst living with his grandparents in the Essex village of

Thundersley Thundersley is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Benfleet, in the Castle Point borough, in southeast Essex, England. It sits on a clay ridge shared with Basildon and Hadleigh, east of Charing Cross, London. In 1951 ...

. At the age of 16 he was hailed in the press as a child prodigy as a result of the enthusiasm of

Dame Laura Knight Dame Laura Knight ( Johnson; 4 August 1877 – 7 July 1970) was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressi ...

for his work. He went into commercial art. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 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 ...

in the

Non-Combatant Corps The Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) was a corps of the British Army composed of conscientious objectors as privates, with NCOs and officers seconded from other corps or regiments. Its members fulfilled various non-combatant roles in the army during the ...

, he volunteered for bomb disposal work. He continued to paint and in 1945 was given an exhibition of his work by Margaret Torrie, who was very influential on the London art scene at that time running the International Arts Centre in west London. Margaret and her husband Alfred, both Quakers, later introduced Harold to the spiritual movement

Subud Subud (pronounced ), acronym of Susila Budhi Dharma, is an international, interfaith spirituality, spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s, founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo (1901–1987). The basis of Subud is a spir ...

, which had a profound effect on his life and work. After the war and now married, Harold enjoyed much success selling his work at the

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

open-air exhibition. and in 1964 he gave up commercial work to concentrate on his own painting full-time. He came to the attention of Hastings, 12th

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...

, who became a patron, giving Harold an exhibition at his palatial home.

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, a ...

. Major London exhibitions followed as did a widening market for his work in the US. His work was admired by art establishment figures of the time, including

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

and

Sir Roy Strong Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ...

, then director of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. In 1984 Hitchcock was given the rare honour of a retrospective exhibition at the RSA gallery in London.

Art

His work is purely imaginative – often depicting, in fine detail, a romantic mythological world of idealised beauty, suffused in light, and reminiscent of the 17th-century painter

Claude Lorraine Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

. However, his art often has a peculiarly English quality following in the tradition of artists such as

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

(in his adoption of a personal mythology) and particularly

Samuel Palmer Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...

in his depiction of a pastoral idyll. His use of light also recalls the paintings of

J.M.W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

. Remarkably unaffected by modern trends in art, he followed his own unique inner vision, working in a spontaneous way with great technical skill. Later works have additionally included a more figurative and semi-abstract style, but without sacrificing the prismatic jewel-like quality of light and colour seen in the landscapes.

Gallery

File:Thundersley 1978 wk.jpg, Thundersley (1978) File:Girl_At_A_Window_1997_wk.jpg, Girl at a Window (1997) File:Harvest Celebration 2000 wk.jpg, Harvest Celebration (2000) File:Sunrise On Cythera 2002 wk.jpg, Sunrise on Cythera (2002)

Public presentations

Exhibitions

* Walker Gallery, London 1956 * Mercury Gallery London * Ewan Phillips London * Austin Hayes London * Rimmell Gallery London * DaVinci Gallery London *

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

Leicester Sq. London * Reid Gallery Bond St. London 1967 * Woburn Abbey Sponsored by the Duke of Bedford 1967 * Royal Institute Gallery London Retrospective 1967 * Upper Grosvenor Gallery London 1969 * Kurt Schon Gallery New Orleans USA 1971 * Touring Exhibition USA during 1972 ncluding exhibitions at Atlanta City, Huntsville, Winston-Salem, Daytona Beach, New Orleans* Pilkington Glass Museum, UK 1973 * Campbell and Franks Gallery, Harley St. London 1975 * Christopher Wood Gallery London 1983 * Royal Society of Arts Picadilly, London 1984 * Christopher Wood Gallery London 1986 * New Orleans Museum of Art 1988 * Hanson Gallery New Orleans 1989 * Marikay Vance Gallery Chicago 1992 * Agora Gallery New York 1999 * Phillip Gallery California 1999 * Phillips Gallery San Jose 2003 * Phillips Gallery Carmel 2004

Permanent collections

* Rowntree Memorial Trust UK * Lidice Memorial Museum Czechoslovakia * Museum of Fine Art N.Carolina USA * University of Louisiana USA * Victoria and Albert Museum London * Hunterian Museum Glasgow Scotland * University Library of Winston-Salem USA

References

* Harold Hitchcock, 'A Romantic Symbol In Surrealism’ by Ian Williamson, Walker and Co, New York, 1974. * 'Life In Light' Phillips Publishing, Carmel, 2000.

External links

Artist's Homepage

johncoulthart.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchcock, Harold English conscientious objectors Landscape artists 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters 21st-century English male artists 1914 births 2009 deaths People from Camden Town People from Thundersley Personnel of the Non-Combatant Corps 20th-century English male artists Military personnel from Middlesex