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Rowland Frederick Hilder OBE (28 June 1905 – 21 April 1993) was an English
accessed 30 June 2009
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Rowland Frederick Hilder OBE (28 June 1905 – 21 April 1993) was an English landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, and book illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
.
Early life
He was born inNew York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
to Roland and Kitty Hilder (née Fissenden). Following the outbreak of World War 1, Hilder's English father decided in 1915 to return to his native county of Kent England to enlist in the army.
Hilder studied at Goldsmiths' College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
, in south London where he met botanical artist Edith Blenkiron (1903-1992). They married and had two children. As a student with little money he cycled into Kent and discovered the Shoreham Valley in the North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills and ...
where he sketched the same barn drawn by the painter Samuel Palmer in the 1820s. This interest in the countryside began a lifelong passion for drawing landscapes in both pencil and watercolour, initially of Kent, "The Garden of England", and the Thames with its sailing vessels and old buildings.
Career
Hilder was commissioned byOxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
to illustrate books. He was awarded the Times Illustrator award for his end papers and monochrome drawings of Stevenson's 'Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...
' in 1929. In the 1930s he illustrated several books. In 1929 Hilder was commissioned by Shell Mex Ltd. to illustrate "Then and Now", a travel guide which started a long relationship with the company with posters sponsored by them. In 1953 when asked by the publisher George Rainbird to provide background landscapes to a series of wildflowers by another artist, Hilder showed him pictures of flowers by his wife Edith. Rainbird then commissioned them both to create the Shell "Flowers of the Countryside" series. Demand was so great that Shell set up an office to deal with correspondence and 13 million plates were published.
He was also a cover artist for ''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 ...
'' and, together with Edith, illustrated the Ladybird Book of British Wild Flowers published in 1957.
He was an army Camouflage Officer during the Second World War and then became a mainstay of the Ministry of Information.
Hilder served as President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours
Royal may refer to:
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* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
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* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
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* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
from 1964 to 1974. He was awarded an OBE in 1986.
Influence
He has been called 'theTurner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
of his generation', and according to the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' 'The description "Rowland Hilder country" (attached primarily to the weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
of Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
) evokes a landscape as distinctive and personal as " Constable's country" along the Suffolk Stour.'Denis Thomas, ‘Hilder, Rowland Frederick (1905–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200accessed 30 June 2009
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References