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HILL-Thomas. portrait painter. Bora in 1661. Was taught drawing by Faithorne, and practised in London as a portrait painter about the beginning of the 18th century. There is a good portrait by him in the Bodleian Library, and a full-sized three-quarters portrait of Humphrey Wan- ley, dated 1711, in thepossession of the Society of Antiquaries. HediedatMitcham in 1734. Many of his portraits are engraved; they are well coloured and painted, full of character and expression, out not elevated. His work has been attributed to Hogarth.
HILL, John, engraver. He was a clever artist, and produced some; good plates in mezzo-tint, among them some lake views, after Charles Dibdin. He emigrated to America, where he was living in 1822.
HILL, David Ootavius, R.S.A., land- scape painter. He was born in 1802, at Perth, where his father was a bookseller, and showing a taste for art was sent to Edinburgh to be the pupil of Andrew Wilson. Here he settled in the practice of his art, and painted the scenery of his own country. In 1830 he was one of the founda- tion members of the Royal Scottish Aca- demy, and was elected to the office of secretary, which he filled till shortly before his death. His early pictures were illustra- tive of the manners of the Scottish peasantry. In 1843 he painted a large picture contain- ing 470 portraits — ' The Establishment of the Free Kirk.' His works were chiefly exhibited in Edinburgh, and were little known in London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1852, 'Edinburgh, from Mons Meg, on the Queen's Birthday; ' in 1861, ' The Castle of Dunure, Ayrshire Coast; ' in the following year, ' The River Tay, with the Lower Grampians, Evening;' and for the last time, in 1868, ' The Vale of the Forth.' He took an active share in the warm con- troversy which arose as to the body by whom the Government art-patronage should be dispensed in Scotland. He published, in 1841, * The Land of Burns,' a series of 60 landscapes. He had long been in failing health, and died at Edinburgh, May 17, 1870, aged 68.
% HILLIARD, Nicholas, miniature painter. Was born at Exeter 1547. His father was high sheriff of that city and county in 1560, and was reputed to have been descended from an old Yorkshire family, though his father and grandfather resided in the West of England. He was a younger son, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith; and carrying on that business ne studied miniature painting, especially from the works of Holbein. He was ap- pointed goldsmith, carver, and portrait painter to Queen Elizabetn, to make pic- tures of 'her body and person in small
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compasse in lymnynge only,' and the same office was continued to him by the patent of 15th James I., who also gave him during 12 years the exclusive privilege ' to mint, make, grave, and imprint any pictures of our image or our royal family. This right he was empowered to sell and to enforce. He employed Simon Passe as his assistant in these works. He painted several por- traits of Queen Elizabeth, one, we are told, a whole-length, in her state robes; a por- trait of Mary, Queen of Scots, at the age of 18; and many of the notables of his time. He engraved the Great Seal of England in 1587. He died January 6, 1619. and was buried at St. Martin in-the- Fields. He was the first English painter whose contemporary reputation has been maintained to our day. His drawing was minutely careful and true, his colouring— the flesh tints particularly— was feeble, but has probably faded. He used opaque
Eigments largely, and gold occasionally in is draperies and jewelled ornaments, which were exauisitely finished and truthful.
HILLIARD, Lawrence, miniature painter. He was the only son of the above, and followed the same profession. That he was of good ability appears from a warrant of the Council in 1624, ordering the pay- ment to him of 42/. for 'five pictures by him drawn.' He was living in 1634, and had three children born to nim after that date. He enjoyed the exclusive patent granted to his father till the expiration of its term.
- HILLS, Robert, water-colour painter.
Was born at Islington, June 26, 1769. He received some instruction in drawing from John Gresse; but little is known of him till he appears as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1791, when he contributed ' A Wood Scene, with Gipseys,' and the f ollow- ing year a landscape. His name is next mentioned as one of the six artists who met in 1804, at Shelley's Rooms, to estab- lish the Water-Colour Society. Of this body he was one of the first members, and for many years the secretary. To its ex- hibitions he was a constant contributor till 1818, when his name disappears in the catalogue for five years, during which time he exhibited six or seven drawings yearly at the Royal Academy. Then resuming his membership with the Society, he con- tinued an exhibitor till his death.
Hills was most industrious in his labours. He exhibited at the Water-Colour Society alone 599 drawings. He made numerous etchings of animals, of which there is a collection in the print-room of the British Museum amounting to 1,240. He pub- lished, in 1816, in quarto, 'Sketches in Flanders and Holland,' with some account of a tour through those countries, illus- trated by 36 aqua-tinted engravings, etched 2 211
