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Derek Hill
, British, 1916-2000
Title
Self-PortraitDate1961
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions
23.5 x 24 cm
Signedlower left: DH
Credit LinePresented, 2017
Object numberNGI.2017.5
DescriptionBorn in England, Hill enjoyed a privileged and diverse youth, studying stage design in Munich, Paris, Vienna and Moscow before committing to painting. He proved an accomplished curator, organising such exhibitions as 'Constable to Cézanne' at the Wildenstein Gallery in New York and a survey of the work of Degas in Edinburgh and at the Tate Gallery, London in 1952. He was also a proficient photographer, publishing studies of Islamic architecture in 1964 and 1976.Hill bought a house, Churchill, in Co. Donegal in 1954, and established a strong and longstanding bond with Ireland. From 1956, he operated during the summer in a disused hut on Tory Island. He was an enthusiastic patron of the arts in Ireland, becoming an early patron of the Wexford Opera Festival, mentoring the self-taught artist James Dixon on Tory Island, and collecting paintings by such artists as Norah McGuinness and Camille Souter. He was awarded honorary Irish citizenship in 1999.
As well as painting a large number of landscapes, particularly in his beloved Donegal and on Tory Island, Hill executed portraits of many prominent Irish sitters and Hibernophiles, from Tony O’Reilly, Archbishop McQuaid and Gay Byrne to John Betjeman and Lord Mountbatten. He rarely painted himself, however.