Adrian Hill British, 1895-1977
Biography
Adrian Keith Graham Hill was born in Charlton, London and studied art at the St John’s Wood School of Art and at the Royal College of Art. During World War One he was appointed an official war artist; many of his paintings and sketches of the Western Front are now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. After the war, he took up painting professionally and taught at Hornsey School of Art and Westminster School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Royal Society of British Artists, Paris Salon and elsewhere.
In 1938, while convalescing from tuberculosis at the King Edward VII sanatorium in Midhurst, Sussex, he passed his time by drawing views from his hospital bed, and found the process helpful in aiding his recovery. In the following year occupational therapy was introduced into the sanatorium and he was invited back to teach drawing and painting to the other patients, many being the first injured soldiers returning from the war. Hill found that the practice of art not only helped take the patients' mind off their illnesses or injuries but also helped to release their mental distress by expressing their anxieties and the scenes they had witnessed during the war. Hill is credited with coining the term Art Therapy in 1942, and in 1945 he published his ideas in the book ‘Art Versus Illness’. He later became president of the British Association of Art Therapists.
He wrote many books on painting theory and techniques, including ‘On Drawing and Painting Tree’ (1936), ‘The Pleasures of Painting’ (1952) and 'Drawing and Painting Flowers' (1965). In the 1950s and 1960s he presented a BBC children’s television series called Sketch Club. He lived near Midhurst, Sussex.
In 1938, while convalescing from tuberculosis at the King Edward VII sanatorium in Midhurst, Sussex, he passed his time by drawing views from his hospital bed, and found the process helpful in aiding his recovery. In the following year occupational therapy was introduced into the sanatorium and he was invited back to teach drawing and painting to the other patients, many being the first injured soldiers returning from the war. Hill found that the practice of art not only helped take the patients' mind off their illnesses or injuries but also helped to release their mental distress by expressing their anxieties and the scenes they had witnessed during the war. Hill is credited with coining the term Art Therapy in 1942, and in 1945 he published his ideas in the book ‘Art Versus Illness’. He later became president of the British Association of Art Therapists.
He wrote many books on painting theory and techniques, including ‘On Drawing and Painting Tree’ (1936), ‘The Pleasures of Painting’ (1952) and 'Drawing and Painting Flowers' (1965). In the 1950s and 1960s he presented a BBC children’s television series called Sketch Club. He lived near Midhurst, Sussex.
