Rose Hilton [ 1931 - 2019 ]

Rose Hilton (15 August 1931 – 19 March 2019) was a British painter living in Cornwall. Born in Kent, in 1931, she attended the Royal College of Art in London, winning the Life Drawing and Painting prize as well as the Abbey Minor Scholarship to Rome.

Upon her return to London, she began teaching art, and, in the late 1950s met her future husband, the leading abstract artist Roger Hilton. Roger actively discouraged his wife’s artistic endeavours, but following his death in 1975 she took up her brushes again. In 1977 she had her first solo show at Newlyn Art Gallery, and her post-impressionist, figurative paintings have achieved wide popularity. Her work is often compared to that of the French Nabi painter, Pierre Bonnard and is noticeably influenced by that of Henri Matisse.

Photo: Antony Crolla