Roger Hilton 1911-1975
Composition, 1973
gouache on paper
14 x 21 ins
initialled (twice) 'RH 73'

Provenance
Private Collection UK

Exhibited
Waddington Galleries, London



Although Hilton had used gouache as a medium intermittently throughout his career, it became almost the only one he was to use from 1972 until his death in 1975. Confined to bed for the last three years of his life, the simplicity and speed of the medium provided a way of working which satisfied his need to paint. In a letter to Alan Green in 1974, he laid out its advantages:

A It is cheap
B It is convenient, i.e. it dries quickly & allows superimposing
C I can do it from my bed
D The products, once made, can be rapidly disposed of

Whilst this categorisation seems to rather belittle his achievements in the medium, the freedoms it allowed him brought about the realisation of a large body of work produced intensively over a relatively short time, and thus gave Hilton the opportunity to not only explore a variety of subjects, but also to investigate these subjects in a way that would never have been possible in oils. Certain themes emerge from the gouaches, with perhaps the most characteristic being the female nude.

Hilton had never fully abandoned the human element in his art and although it was often submerged beneath his other concerns, the figure had always been an element of his paintings. Perhaps the best known of these is the important Oi Yoi Yoi (coll.Tate Gallery) which expresses sheer joy in its free rendering of the female form. In the gouaches, Hilton was able to continue to explore this theme and either full figures or clear bodily references appear throughout the series. With his deft use of the pure colours afforded him by the medium, these works are poignant but ultimately optimistic images of delight.