Reference: see DAAO: Hill was born 1820; painter, lecturer, poet and public servant, was a son of Eliza and James Hill, a barrister, of Devonport, Devonshire. A cousin of John Skinner Prout , it was possibly because of this connection that Hill migrated to New South Wales. By August 1841 he had immersed himself in the fledgling cultural activities of Sydney. He was honorary secretary of the short-lived Commercial Reading Rooms and Library in 1842- 43, then had a longer association with the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, being secretary and librarian from 1845 to 1848. He took an active role in the Sydney Debating Society and lectured at the School of Arts between 1843 and 1847 on 'The Literature of Britain’, 'Taste as Applied to the Sublime and the Beautiful’ and 'Drama’. Although newspaper reports suggest that his lectures were well attended and well received, Hill’s views were not to the taste of Charles Harpur who pilloried him in an unpublished satire, 'The Temple of Infamy’.
Although a mediocre poet, Hill published Tarquin the Proud, and Other Poems (1843), A Monody on the Death of Sir George Gipps (1847) and many poems in newspapers and magazines. He was chosen to represent 'The Poet’ in Heads of the People (21 August 1847). A week later the same magazine referred to him as 'a marine painter of good practice’. His A Frigate in Anchor in Plymouth Sound was hung at the first exhibition of the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia in 1847 and possibly the same painting, A Dock Scene (1845, water colour), is in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.
The year 1848 saw a change in Hill’s fortunes and domicile. He resigned from the School of Arts amid complaints about his conduct and the 'completely disorganised’ state of the library. (There are hints that over-indulgence in rum was a factor.) The resulting scandal seems to have prompted his departure for Hobart Town, where he worked in the Survey Department as a draughtsman and later as a clerk. Arriving in July, he exhibited several marine views at R.J. Edwards’s shop in Liverpool Street in October, including some done on the voyage from Sydney. In 1849 he gave his lectures on 'Drama’ and 'The Principles of Taste’ at the Hobart Town Mechanics Institute, the latter being printed in Lectures Delivered at the Mechanics Institute, Hobart Town . In April he married Louisa, widow of John Odell of Port Maria, Jamaica. He worked as a clerk in the Survey Department for varying periods from May 1849 to December 1853, then visited Victoria to sketch the goldfields.
In addition to his marine pictures, Hill was painting landscapes on commission and giving art lessons early in 1856. He painted competent and elegant landscapes, such as View of Government House Gardens from the Gardener’s Cottage (no date, water colour, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania). In later life he turned from painting and poetry to politics, writing leaders for the Mercury (1857-60) and the Hobart Town Advertiser (1861). In 1861 Hill was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly but soon afterwards, on 27 February, was assaulted with a walking stick by Captain Davies over some 'insulting expressions’ he had used, had his head broken and, according to Hugh Munro Hull , died on 23 October of erysipelas brought on by the blow. Six weeks after his death some of his marine paintings were exhibited by his widow at their home. Louisa Hill died ten years later, in May 1871.
Writers:Webby, Elizabeth Date written:1992
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