Philip Maurice HILL

Philip Maurice HILL SMA
Maurice Hill
1892
1952

The son of a Judge, he was educated at King's College School and read history at Balliol College, Oxford. He began training as an architect, but this was interrupted by the Great War, after which he trained as a solicitor, qualifying in 1923. He was immediately appointed Assistant Manager of the UK Chamber of Shipping, becoming Deputy in 1938 and General Manager from 1941 until 1950. From 1933 he began painting, studying art in both London and St Ives, and exhibited at a number of leading art societies.

He also designed a poster of Polperro for the Great Western Railway Company. A devout Catholic, he and his wife, Megan Rhys, painted the panels of Christ and the Twelve Apostles and the four Doctors of the Church which used to hang on the front of the organ loft at St Ives RC Church. In the 1950s he exhibited at St Ives Show Days from the Piazza Studios.  When he died he had just completed a new translation of the Greek poet Sappho being printed by Guido MORRIS; he passed away the night before the advance copy was delivered.

media

Painter of landscapes and marine subjects; designer and scholar

works and access

Works include: Continental church; The Depth Charge (1941) and GWR poster Polperro

He and his wife painted the panels of Christ and the Twelve Apostles and the four Doctors of the Church which used to hang on the front of the organ loft at St Ives RC Church

exhibitions

Arlington Galleries (108) 1933 onwards

RA (2) 1941

STISA 1945, Winter 1947 and 1951 Festival of Britain Touring Shows

Society Marine Artists 1949 (two works painted on board SS Himalaya)

NEA; RBA; ROI

memberships

Society of Marine Artists

 STISA 1939-52

references

Buckman (2006) Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945

Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall (p330)

Johnson & Greutzner (1975) Dictionary of British Artists

Tovey (2000) GF Bradshaw & STISA (Appendix 3: Principal Members of STISA 1927-1960)

        (2003) Creating a Splash;

        (2009) St Ives: Social History

        (2021) Polperro - Cornwall's Forgotten Art Centre - Volume Two - Post-1920, Wilson Books