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Nathaniel Hill (1861-1934)

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Nathaniel Hill (1861-1934)

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Auction Date:2004 Sep 21 @ 18:00 (UTC)
Location:Ireland
Nathaniel Hill (1861-1934)
A RARE COLLECTION OF NINE WATERCOLOURS MOUNTED IN AN EDWARDIAN SCRAPBOOK
four signed (one in full, three in initials); five unsigned; mounted and inscribed by the owner of the scrapbook
watercolour heightened with bodycolour
various dimensions
Provenance:
Miss Muriel L. Ellis, Aberdeen, Scotland;
Private collection, Kent
Irish impressionist painter, Nathaniel Hill, was born in Drogheda to a wealthy milling family. He studied at the Metropolitan School of Art and the RHA schools in Dublin (sharing lodgings with Roderic O’Conor), and later joined Walter Osborne and Joseph Malachy Kavanagh at the Académie Royale in Antwerp. After travelling with Osborne and Kavanagh to Brittany in 1883, he moved to England, where he is recorded as having lived variously in Worcestershire, Suffolk, Sussex and possibly Hertfordshire. Most accounts of his life record that he ceased painting around 1895 and his movements from then until his death in Betws-y-coed in North Wales are uncertain. This newly discovered scrapbook therefore sheds some light on his later years, and reveals that he continued painting, at least for his personal pleasure and amusement if not in a professional capacity.
Two of the works are dated by the artist: December 1903 and 22 December 1904 respectively. Another two are dated by the recipient of Hill’s small sketches as having been drawn in October 1910. At least two of the sketches were sent as Christmas cards; the 1904 card (3.5 by 5.5 inches) is inscribed by Hill: "View near Clogher Head / With Best Wishes to you / for a Happy Xmas NH 22/12/04", and depicts the small fishing village Clogher (known locally as Clogher Head), seven miles from his hometown Drogheda. Another Christmas card, signed in full and inscribed "When shall we three meet again", depicts three black-faced sheep in a summer field (3.5 by 4.5 inches). Two other works, signed in initials, depict a man walking along a high-walled road by the sea (4.5 by 3.5 inches) and cows on a road at autumn (2.75 by 3.25 inches), this latter also being dated December 1903. Three unsigned watercolours (each 3.5 by 5.5 inches) attributable to Hill and inscribed by Miss Ellis all depict scenes in Co. Cork: "Patrick’s Bridge, Cork / October: 1910", "Ummera River Timoleague Co. Cork / Oct: 1910" and "Queenstown Cathedral (R.C.) / from a pencil sketch", this latter showing the neo-Gothic cathedral designed by Pugin and Ashlin for Queenstown (now Cobh), prior to the building of the bell tower. On the page opposite the Queenstown view are two others, also unsigned, inscribed again by Ellis, "Scene in France" (2.75 by 4 inches) and "Reduction from a large picture" (1.5 by 4 inches) this latter being a vigorous little sketch of breaking waves.
The scrapbook was compiled by Miss Muriel L. Ellis, daughter of Bishop Ellis, originally of Edinburgh and later of Aberdeen. It contains many dozens of other sketches, watercolours, limericks and verse, all collected from the friends and acquaintance of Miss Ellis, among whom was Nathaniel Hill. Interestingly there are written contributions from a Kathleen L. M. Hill and a William Brydon Hill (both September 1902), and an Emmeline Hill; possibly relations of the artist. The whole collection is bound in watered green silk with the owner’s initials gilt stamped on the upper board.
€4000-€6000 (£2700-£4000 sterling approx.)