Derek Hill (painter)

His long association with Ireland began when he visited Glenveagh Castle, County Donegal to paint the portrait of the Irish-American art collector, Henry McIlhenny, whose grandfather had emigrated to the United States from the nearby village of Milford, and who subsequently made a fortune from his patent gas meter.

Hill began to enjoy increased success as a portrait painter from the 1960s; his subjects including many notable composers, musicians, politicians and statesmen, such as broadcaster Gay Byrne, Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek and the Prince of Wales.

In 1981, he donated to the state his home, St. Columb's Rectory, near the village of Churchill, County Donegal, which he had owned since 1954, along with a considerable collection including work by Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Georges Braque, Graham Sutherland, Anna Ticho and Jack Butler Yeats.

[3] During his lively two tenures, he encouraged resident art scholars, which included Anthony Fry and John Bratby, to travel throughout Italy, whilst, in the academy itself, Hill fostered a jovial, creative atmosphere.

The scholarship is granted through an open, competitive selection of British and Irish artists in the fields of drawing and painting, providing a stipend and three months full-board in one of the Edwin Austin Abbey studios.