Generosity of spirit

Rose Hilton: A Selected Retrospective
Tate St Ives, until 11 May

Rose Hilton was born Rosemary Phipps in the Kentish village of Leigh, near Tonbridge, in 1931. She grew up the dutiful daughter of parents who were strict Plymouth Brethren, but early on she showed distinct signs of artistic talent. Her parents considered that this might equip her as an art teacher, but Rose had higher ambitions: she determined to be a painter. Force of character combined with innate skills took her from Beckenham Art School to the Royal College of Art in London, where she won prizes and was praised by her tutor Carel Weight for her sense of colour. She looked all set for a successful career in art until she met that uncompromising painter Roger Hilton, 20 years her senior, a man who many thought was ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’. Rose found him irresistible, and stayed with him from 1960 until his premature death in 1975, putting her own career on hold to look after him and care for their children. This fascinating exhibition traces her work from the early years of promise to her mature vision, which only really blossomed after Roger’s death.

I must at once declare an interest: I have not only written the catalogue essay for this show, but am also embarking upon a book on Rose Hilton’s life and work. I first met Rose when I had written an essay about Roger Hilton’s drawings in 2001, a commission which led in due course to my writing an extensive monograph on Roger, published last year by Thames & Hudson. During the course of the research for that book I got to know Rose quite well and realised that there was very definitely another side of the Hilton story to Roger’s, and one that was worth telling.