*ADRIAN HILL (1895-1977) 'The Black Line, Oppy Sector, 1918'

Adrian Hill was a British 20th Century artist who was most famous for his work as a war artist and his pivotal role in the creation and promotion of art as therapy. He studied at the St. John's Wood Art School and later at the Royal College of Art, going on to teach at the Hornsey School of Art and Westminster School of Art. Hill was elected President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1968 and his art style combined elements of impressionism and surrealism. He served in the Honourable Artillery Company during World War One, the first artist to be commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to record first-hand conflict on the Western Front. During a period of convalescence whilst suffering from tuberculosis he began to teach drawing and painting to other patients, including injured soldiers and was instrumental in setting up an art programme as art therapy for patients. He also set up a scheme with the British Red Cross to lend copies of famous pictures to hospitals and organised a lecture series, as well as writing many books about painting and drawing, and in the 1950s and early 1960s presented a BBC children's television programme called Sketch Club