Rose Hilton

Rose Hilton artist was the wife of the St Ives abstract artist roger Hilton ,she never really flourished as an artist until the death of Roger who would never allow her to paint, saying there was only room for one artist in this house and that was him, despite this  and his alcoholism she stayed with him until the end . In his last  bedridden years he relented and allowed her to paint, she was a friend of the abstract artist Sandra Blow and Terry Frost and his wife. She sold through Messums gallery , her art  was not for the abstract although she did venture into this area but the painter Bonnard was her inspiration. Roses painting  i have posted is of Ida Kelarova the famous gypsy jazz singer.

Hi Philpot, Yes all of the painting, it's out of its frame at the moment ,a smallish painting it measures 30x20 inches approx. We have had a number of Rose Hiltons paintings in the past and i find them attractive but her husband Rogers are more in keeping with the period. We have a large example by Rose in one of her more abstract moods. The price gulf in Rose and Roger's paintings is wide, where even a scribbling daub by roger can fetch far more than the best of Rose.

I sold some studio pots to David Brown, who in his later working life had been an art curator at the Tate. It was when I delivered the pots to his home that I first came across Rose's work. It would have been around 2000 and before then I had never heard of her. Down his hall he had over a dozen late works by Roger Hilton, which I commented on and then he showed me a couple of Rose's paintings and told me the story that you have above. Although I tend to like abstract rather than figurative work they did appeal to me at the time.