Tristram Hillier R.A.

(British, 1905-1983)

Selsey Bill 22.6 x 35.6 cm. (8 7/8 x 14 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
With Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 2 May 1948, where acquired by
Colonel F. Barker
Henry Luce III and Claire Booth Luce, thence by descent
Private Collection, Vermont, U.S.A.

Exhibited
London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Paintings by Tristram Hillier, 7 May-1 June 1946, cat.no.28

The present work was included in Hillier's exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Son's Bruton Street gallery in summer of 1946. This exhibition, the artist's first with Tooth's, had been slated for 1940 but was delayed due to the war. Many of the works selected for inclusion had to be abandoned by Hillier as he fled from his Normandy studio. Subsequently, these paintings had to be rescued and transported to London at great pains, as it transpired just in time with troops ransacking the Hillier house not long after.

The delay to the exhibition resulted in an opportunity for Hillier to showcase the scope of development across the years since his Lefevre exhibition of 1933. Together it grouped a select number of Surrealist compositions such as Variations on the Form of an Anchor (1939, Tate Gallery) with a larger number of dazzling continental scenes such as The Lighthouse (1939, sold in these rooms on 23 November 2016 for £106,250). Hillier also included several recent English scenes in the exhibition, such as the present work, The Forsaken Village (1944) and Lobster Pots (1945). Generally executed on a small scale and demonstrating finely laboured application, these views are all deserted, abandoned even, undoubtedly a reflection of the horrors which the continent had just witnessed.

Hillier wrote of the Tooth show - 'My exhibition was as successful as I could have wished. All the pictures were sold, within a few days while the critics were in some cases complimentary and in others exceedingly abusive, so that their reactions were without exception gratifying' (Tristram Hillier, Leda and the Goose, Longmans, London, 1954, p.177).

Colonel F. Barker, the works first owner, purchased several works by Hillier, including Étretat (1939), and Chapel at Zarza (1969, sold in these rooms on 22 November 2017).

The Estate of Tristram Hillier is preparing a forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Artist's paintings and would like to hear from owners of any works by Hillier. Please write to The Estate of Tristram Hillier, c/o Modern British and Irish Art, Bonhams, 101 New Bond St, Mayfair, London W1S 1SR or email [email protected].