John Henry Hill
John Henry Hill
1839 - 1922
Hill was born in West Nyack, New York, in 1839. He was the son of John William Hill, a noted engraver and landscape painter, and the grandson of the English-born engraver, John Hill.
Hill received his art instruction from his father who, by around 1855, had come under the influence of Ruskinian aesthetics. His earliest work consisted of detailed landscapes and botanical studies, many of them executed in watercolour, a medium he favoured throughout his career. Hill began exhibiting his work at the National Academy of Design in 1856. He was elected an Associate member two years later and continued to contribute to the annual exhibitions on a more or less regular basis until 1891.
In January of 1863, Hill, along with his father and several other artists, helped found the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art. The group, which included such noted painters as Thomas C. Fairer and William Trost Richards, focussed their attention on small scale landscapes, still lifes and botanical studies. Taking their cue from Ruskin, whose principle of "truth to nature" formed the aesthetic basis of Pre-Raphaelitism, their work was small in scale, distinguished by meticulous attention to detail and vivid colouration. Hill's work was frequently discussed in critical reviews published in the Association's journal, The New Path (1863-1865), which provided a forum for the promotion and dessemination of Ruskinian theory.
Throughout these years, Hill painted and sketched throughout the Catskills, New England and in and around West Nyack. During 1864-1865 he spent eight months in England studying the work of J.M.W. Turner. Returning to America, he established himself in Ashfield, Mass., where a number of Ruskin's disciples had gathered. He began working on a folio of twenty-four etchings illustrating his views about drawing from nature. These were published in 1867 as Sketches from Nature.
In 1868 and again in 1870, Hill accompanied his friend, the geologist Clarence King, on expeditions to the American West. He also made another visit to England in 1878 and toured the Continent in 1879 basing a portion of his journey on an itinerary recommended by Ruskin.
Hill resettled in West Nyack in 1879 following the death of his father. He concentrated almost exclusively on watercolour painting, his late work reflecting the prevailing interest in pleinairism. Hill died in West Nyack in 1922.
Hill's work is represented in such important public collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His watercolour, Pineapples (ca.1864; Coll.: Brooklyn Museum), distinguished by its geological and botanical accuracy, is considered one of the hallmarks of the American Pre-Raphaelite tradition.
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