J. J. Hilder

Hilder was transferred to a Sydney suburb, but the sea air did not suit him; he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Later that same year Hilder the Bank of New South Wales accepted his resignation, and paid him nine months' leaving salary.

A cottage was taken at Epping in the hills a few miles from Sydney, and during the next two years Hilder and his wife went through many anxieties.

Increasingly focused on his artwork, Hilder began to find more patronage and sales, and exhibited in Melbourne in 1914.

Despite continued ill-health he painted throughout the remaining two years of his life, dying on 10 April 1916, at Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia.

He was fortunate in his wife, in the admiration of his fellow artists, and in finding early buyers of his paintings.

He was very critical of his own work and tore up much of it; sometimes the final result was the third or fourth effort to capture the subject.