Rowland Hilder
Rowland Frederick Hilder OBE (28 June 1905 – 21 April 1993) was an English marine and landscape artist and book illustrator. He was born in New York to Roland and Kitty Hilder (née Fissenden). Hilder's parents returned to their native Kent in 1914.[1]
Hilder studied at Goldsmiths' College, where he met botanical artist Edith Blenkiron (1903-1992). They married and had two children.[1]
Hilder was commissioned by Oxford University Press to illustrate books. He developed an interest in landscape painting, and depicted the River Thames and the Weald of Kent, primarily in watercolour.[1]
He has been called 'the Turner of his generation',[2] and according to the Dictionary of National Biography 'The description "Rowland Hilder country" (attached primarily to the weald of Kent) evokes a landscape as distinctive and personal as "Constable's country" along the Suffolk Stour.'[3]
An army Camouflage Officer during the war, he then became a mainstay of the Ministry of Information. At the end of the war, advertising guru George Rainbird was inspired to commission a series of landscapes for Whitbread that led in turn, to Rowland and Edith creating the hugely successful Shell posters together. His landscapes as the backdrop and her exquisitely detailed flowers in the foreground were a winning and enduring combination.
Hilder served as President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours from 1964 to 1974.[4] He was awarded the OBE in 1986.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Rowland Hilder". bookroomartpress.co.uk. Bookroom Art Press. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- ↑ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/theartofwar/artists/hilder_rowland.htm
- ↑ Denis Thomas, ‘Hilder, Rowland Frederick (1905–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 June 2009
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Thomas, Denis. "Obituary:Rowland Hilder". independent.co.uk. Independent Newspaper. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
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