1. Reclining Figure II, 2011
ink drawing 26 x 39 cms 101⁄4 x 153⁄8 ins
“
Her pictures are exquisitely
beautiful. They show a finely tuned sense of tone, colour and form and also
The New Book
by
a wonderful empathy with the sitter and
Ian Collins
a sense of the figure’s sensuality. Senior Tate curator Chris Stephens
”
Rose Hilton is a free spirit in art and life. Founded in figuration, her beautiful pictures have moved in recent decades towards lyrical abstraction. Now in her eighties, she is painting better than ever. Rose Phipps was a prize-winning student when she met the abstract artist Roger Hilton. During their 16 tumultuous years together, Rose abandoned her career to support Roger and raise a family. The figure dancing into Hilton’s later art was hers. Her sensitive and sensual paintings reflect the light of Cornwall. Today she is counted among Britain’s leading colourists and hailed as a matchless maker of joyful pictures. In this image-packed book, Ian Collins tells a fascinating and uplifting story. With added commentaries on her own pictures, and memories of many friendships, Rose Hilton offers unique insight into the art of life.
“
FINE ART PUBLICATIONS
£35
Rose obeys the poet Wallace Stevens’s dictum that art must
give pleasure. Her paintings combine grandeur with gaiety. Former Arts Minister Lord Gowrie
” Rose Hilton by Ian Collins 245 x 290 mm, 208 pages printed in full colour with over 200 illustrations.
Ian Collins has written monographs on John Craxton, James Dodds, John McLean and Guy Taplin, and curated exhibitions from the Benaki Museum in Greece to the Yale Center for British Art in the United States. His show ‘Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia’ earned the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich a nomination as the UK’s Museum of the Year 2014.
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Rose Hilton and the Art of Life Mr and (especially) Mrs Phipps committed each baby to the service of the Lord. Preachers would be best, and after those came doctors, nurses and teachers. All went well until the preordained servants developed minds of their own. Rosemary was allowed to train in art on the basis that she was destined to be a tutor and not an artist (by way of a warning, an uncle who painted chocolatebox images had taken inevitably to drink). Eventually she applied to the hallowed Royal College of Art in secret. All hell broke loose when she was accepted with a full scholarship – but her will prevailed.
Rose Hilton, née Rosemary Phipps, has enjoyed a very eventful life. She has poured all her experience and evolving expertise into the art of celebration. Now, at the age of 85, her unshadowed painting is better – brighter, freer, more abstract, more brilliant – than ever. It would be tempting to conclude that here is Britain’s Georgia O’Keeffe, were it not so patently obvious that Rose has only been – could only ever be – wholly herself. Rosemary Phipps was born in pre-war Kent, the fourth child of seven. Although her parents sought to instil stern Plymouth Brethren doctrine (no dancing, cinema, comics, nor music save for hymns and few books beyond the Bible), they taught a deeper lesson about the power of love and the need for fun. Rosemary’s mother, who would have made a marvellous comic actress, ran a village store while her father oversaw an adjoining bakery. The children ran wild in an idyllic rural landscape near Samuel’s Palmer’s Golden Valley. All this made for a blissful childhood, and Rosemary was anyway born with the pleasure gene which – anyhow, anywhere – savours every minute. overleaf, opposite title page
2. Botallack Figure, 2014
oil on canvas 61 x 46 cms 241⁄8 x 181⁄8 ins
Her new friends called her Rose and she liked the implied warmth and openness of a Fulham Road barmaid. Her year included Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Ken Howard, Keith Grant, Brian Fielding, Olwyn Bowey and Sonia Lawson – and to Ken Howard she was the most talented of the lot. But frenetic life, if not family conflict, led to a health crisis and when TB was confirmed her mother perceived the wrath of God. Rose saw only rescue. In restful isolation she read, took stock and released herself from constrictive religion. There was a triumphant return to the Royal College – and she graduated with a first alongside Richard Smith. The most glittering of all her prizes brought a year in Rome, during which she sub-let her flat to Sandra Blow. Sandra had turned up first with Roger Hilton and then with Bryan Wynter. Rose liked Bryan. When she reclaimed the flat she found she had taken on Roger too. Rose spent 16 tumultuous years with Roger Hilton, for most of which her painting was put on hold. Based first in London and then, from 1965, in Cornwall, she was absorbed in family life – raising two sons and coping with a wayward genius. Roger demanded that he was to be “the painter in this set up” but Rose was not eclipsed. The female figure now dancing through Hilton images of formerly austere abstraction was hers. As Roger
3. Model on the Couch, 2016
oil on canvas 61 x 51 cms 24 x 20 ins
ailed and increasingly used alcohol as a fuel for creative labour, she ensured his fabulous flow of late gouaches and saved his furious messages to be published as Night Letters. He, in turn, finally relented towards her vocation as an artist and gave invaluable advice on technique after saying: “If you really insist on sticking to this oldfashioned sort of painting, I can help you make the best of it.” For while Roger Hilton has drawn many copyists, Rose was never to be one of them. She has followed
Rose with Rufus in the conservatory
her own path in work founded in deft draughtsmanship and advancing into dazzling colour along a route lit by Bonnard and then Matisse. It took a year for Rose to recover from Roger’s death, in 1975, and so this birthday exhibition at Messum’s, also launching our new book in collaboration with Lund Humphries, really marks a 40-year mature career. Or rather, a still maturing career. For both show and monograph demonstrate an ongoing progression, with the very best work among the recent and the new –
or maybe still to come. Having been perhaps the only seventysomething to undergo a magazine makeover and to look better in the Before than the After picture, Rose could have been a model with her lithe grace. Her sensuous pictures remain a model of youthful energy: the art of exhilaration. Today Rose Hilton may be seen as the last survivor of the glory days of painting in Cornwall. Having visited the westernmost county that is more akin to a country with Roger from the 1950s, she knew the stellar likes of Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, John Wells (whose Newlyn studio is now her own) and Bryan Wynter. She has drawn strength from the example of Barbara Hepworth and praise from Alethea Garstin who was born amid the first great wave of Cornish painting in the late Victorian era. She has made prints with Bryan Ingham and heard St Ives-raised Jane Mitchell, centenarian widow of sculptor Denis Mitchell, relating how Alfred Wallis was exploited by the early collectors of modernism. Her closest friends have included Sandra Blow and Mary Stork. She also has the unique perspective of having befriended the partners of major painters (I once witnessed the reunion of Rose Hilton, Sheila Lanyon and Monica Wynter in an aisle of the Newlyn Co-Op). Art and artist are all of a piece. Here is a love of everyday existence and empathy for other people – Rose much prefers her models to be her friends so that their characters can permeate the canvas. Everything links into a toast to life and a spirit we should all share. Ian Collins Cornwall, September 2016 *Ian Collins is a writer and curator. He has written monographs on John Craxton, James Dodds, John McLean and now Rose Hilton – the new book published jointly by Lund Humpries and Studio Publications
4. Oil Sketch for Artist and Model, 2016
oil on canvas 51 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins
5. 2 Women monoprint 25 x 23 cms 97â „8 x 9 ins
6. Park Lady, 2009
oil on canvas 61 x 51 cms 24 x 20 ins
7. St. Ives Holiday I monotype 38 x 23 cms 15 x 9 ins
8. Bathers, Rockpool Series V, 2014
oil on canvas 132 x 122 cms 52 x 48 ins
9. Greek Dancing Sketch, 2014
pencil 31 x 23 cms 12 x 9 ins
10. Naxos, 2014
oil on canvas 122 x 91 cms 47 7⁄8 x 357⁄8 ins
11. Seated Figure II monotype 40 x 28 cms 15 3â „4 x 11 ins
12. Life Class Painting at Botallack, 2010
oil on canvas 91 x 91 cms 36 x 36 ins
Rose sketching at Newlyn Harbour.
13. Blue Café, 2007
oil on canvas 122 x 152 cms 48 x 60 ins
14. Conservatory Figures IV, 2014
15. Conservatory Figures V, 2014
oil on board 25 x 31 cms 10 x 12 ins
oil on board 25 x 31 cms 10 x 12 ins
16. Conservatory Painting II, 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 297⁄8 x 297⁄8 ins
17. Shoe monotype 40 x 28 cms 153⁄4 x 11 ins
18. Seated Girl monotype 40 x 28 cms 153⁄4 x 11 ins
19. Two Figures, 2015
oil on canvas 102 x 76 cms 40 x 30 ins
20. Green Lady, 2015
oil on canvas 91 x 91 cms 36 x 36 ins
Starting work in her Newlyn studio.
21. Girls in the Spring, 2016
oil on canvas 91 x 91 cms 36 x 36 ins
22. Beach I, 2014
oil sketch on canvas 46 x 61 cms 18 x 24 ins
23. Beach II, 2014
oil sketch on canvas 46 x 61 cms 18 x 24 ins
24. Bathers, Rock Pool Series, Botallack III, 2012
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
25. Girl in the Armchair, I monotype 41 x 28 cms 161â „8 x 11 ins
26. May and April monoprint 61 x 38 cms 24 x 15 ins
27. Solace, 2016
oil on canvas 76 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins
28. Abstract Figure, 2016
oil on board 27 x 29 cms 10 5⁄8 x 113⁄8 ins
29. Botallack Landscape, 2009
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
30. Arches, 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
31. Spring Interior, 2004
oil on canvas 91 x 122 cms 357â „8 x 48 ins
32. Bath Series III, 2010
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
33. Bath Series I, 2010
oil on canvas 76 x 61 cms 30 x 24 ins
34. Figures, 2014
oil on canvas 82 x 41 cms 321⁄8 x 161⁄8 ins
35. Bath Series IV, 2010
oil on board 79 x 78 cms 31 x 301â „2 ins
36. Summer Repast, 2007
oil on canvas 123 x 183 cms 481â „4 x 72 ins
37. Conversation, 2007
oil on canvas 122 x 183 cms 48 x 72 ins
38. The Quarrel, 1994
lino print 22 x 31 cms 85⁄8 x 121⁄4 ins
39. The Quarrel, 2014
oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms 20 x 30 ins
40. Conversation in the Conservatory, 2016
charcoal and pastel 29 x 29 cms 113â „8 x 111â „4 ins
41. Grey Still Life, 2003
oil on canvas 102 x 127 cms 401â „8 x 50 ins
42. Conservatory Painting (1), 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
43. Adrianne, 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
44. The Dance monotype 41 x 28 cms 161⁄8 x 11 ins
45. The Figures monotype 28 x 40 cms 11 x 153⁄4 ins
46. Kirsten, 2016
oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 20 x 16 ins
47. On the Balcony, 2006
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 29 7⁄8 x 297⁄8 ins
48. Tess at Botallack, 2006
oil on canvas 61 x 51 cms 24 x 20 ins
49. Zelah, 2004
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
50. Drawing the Blinds, 2014
oil on canvas 51 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins
51. Homage to Braque, 2014
oil on canvas 71 x 92 cms 28 x 36 ins
52. Conservatory Figures I, 2014
oil on canvas 71 x 92 cms 28 x 36 ins
53. View From A Window (Studio), 2006
oil on canvas 61 x 51 cms 24 x 201â „8 ins
54. St Ives Landscape, 2016
oil on canvas 51 x 61 cms 20 x 24 ins
55. Lovers, 2014
oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms 28 x 36 ins
56. Sketch Painting for “Blue Still Life”, 2010
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
57. Botallack Conservatory II, 2008
ink and brush on paper 24 x 42 cms 91⁄4 x 161⁄2 ins
58. Botallack Conservatory IV, 2008
ink and brush on paper 24 x 42 cms 91⁄4 x 161⁄2 ins
59. In the Conservatory, 2011
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
60. Seated Nude, 2011 watercolour 40 x 31 cms 151⁄2 x 121⁄4 ins
61. In the Sun, 2016
oil on board 23 x 30 cms 9 x 115⁄8 ins
62. Nude, 2002
oil on canvas 51 x 76 cms 201⁄8 x 30 ins Shown at TATE St Ives, 2008
63. Allegro, 2015
oil on canvas 122 x 183 cms 48 x 717â „8 ins
64. Kenidjack, 2007
oil on canvas 122 x 183 cms 48 x 72 ins Shown at TATE St Ives, 2008
65. Winter Landscape in Choc au lait, 2013
oil on canvas 31 x 26 cms 12 x 10 ins
66. Red Room, 2014
oil on canvas 76 x 76 cms 30 x 30 ins
67. Trewarveneth Studio, 2010
oil on canvas 102 x 61 cms 40 x 24 ins
68. Reflection, 2008
oil on canvas 76 x 60 cms 297⁄8 x 235⁄8 ins
69. Figures and Plants, 2014
oil on canvas 92 x 92 cms 36 x 36 ins
Born in Kent, Rose Hilton attended Beckenham Art School before going on to the Royal College of Art where she won the Life Drawing and Painting Prize as well as the Abbey Minor Scholarship to Rome. On her return to London she started teaching as well as showing with the Young Contemporaries. It was during this period that she met and married the artist Roger Hilton – and for the next decade she supported him through failing health and a flourishing career, also raising two sons. There was little time to pursue her own career as a painter during this time. Exhibiting regularly at Messum’s since 1990, Rose Hilton has steadily built a reputation as a major St. Ives artist and a singular painter of sensuous and exquisite images. 1931 1949-53 1953-57 1958-59 1956 1959 1959 1960 1961/1965 From 1961 1975 1977 1978 1987 1988 1989 1991 1993 1994 1995 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002
2002 2002 2004 2008
2009
2011 2012 2014 2014 2016
70. Dancing Figure, 1980 pencil 29 x 20 cms 113⁄8 x 77⁄8 ins
Born Rose Phipps Beckenham Art School Royal College of Art Abbey Minor Scholarship, Rome Young Contemporaries Exhibition at the RBA Suffolk Street, London Contemporary Women Painters: Whitechapel Gallery, London Met fellow artist Roger Hilton (1911-1975) Set-up with Roger Hilton and later married him Birth of sons Regular exhibitions with Penwith and Newlyn Society of Artists Roger Hilton dies Newlyn Gallery, first solo show Plymouth Art Centre, solo show Newlyn Art Gallery, solo show The Oxford Gallery, solo show Joins David Messum David Messum Gallery, W1, solo show David Messum Gallery, W1, solo show Three Painters of Penwith, Messum’s, Cork Street, W1 Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Twelve New Paintings, Messum’s, Cork Street, W1 Painters and Sculptors of the South West, Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, group show North Light Gallery, Huddersfield, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Tate St Ives: Rose Hilton: The Beauty of Ordinary Things, a Selected Retrospective, 1950-2007 Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show and launch of Andrew Lambirth’s book Rose Hilton: Something to Keep the Balance Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show ‘Giving Life to Painting’ Studio 3 Gallery, School of Art, University of Kent Messum’s, Cork Street, W1, solo show and launch of Ian Collins’ book Rose Hilton
Public Collections which include works by Rose Hilton: Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery; The Nuffield Collection; Cornwall County Council: Truro Art Gallery
71. Seated Figure, 2013
pen on paper 23 x 15 cms 9 x 57⁄8 ins
back cover
72. Torso, 2016
chalk and wash 39 x 30 cms 153⁄8 x 115⁄8 ins
CDXV
ISBN 978-1-910993-07-1 Publication No: CDXV Published by David Messum Fine Art © David Messum Fine Art
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell, Peter Harris Printed by Connekt Colour
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