Rose Hilton ― Something to Keep the Balance

After showing exceptional early promise, Rose Hilton's artistic career was brought to an abrupt halt in 1959 when she met the painter Roger Hilton. It was not until 1975, the year of her husband's death, that Rose Hilton was able to take up the interrupted thread of her work and give it her full attention. Following her husband's death, Rose strove to recapture the promise and flair of her early years reinterpreted through her experience living beside Roger. Her favored subjects became the interior, often peopled with figures, still-life and landscape. She brought to these traditional subjects a freshness of handling which owes something to the French artists she admires, and also to English twentieth-century masters such as Ivon Hitchens and Keith Vaughan. Yet the work is very much her own, with a rich though sensitive color sense and a formal invention that is attractively understated.Outlining Rose Hilton's life and career, this book, the first on the artist, draws heavily upon diaries Hilton has kept sporadically throughout her life. Skillfully interweaving diary entries throughout the narrative, Andrew Lambirth has created an exceptionally frank portrayal of the emotional and psychological wellsprings of an artist who has had to fight for her identity, but who has won through to genuine acclaim. Thoroughly engrossing, Rose Hilton is essential reading for anyone interested in British art in the twentieth century.

Andrew Lambirth is art critic for The Spectator. He has also written for a range publications including World of Interiors, The Art Book, Modern Painters, Art Quarterly and Harpers & Queen. A prolific author, he has written extensively on twentieth-century British art and his books include Roger Hilton, Kitaj and LS Lowry: Conversation Pieces.