Rowland Hilder

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Hilder's English father decided in 1915 to return to his native county of Kent, England, to enlist in the army.

[2] As a student with little money he cycled into Kent and discovered the Shoreham Valley in the North Downs where he sketched the same barn drawn by the painter Samuel Palmer in the 1820s.

This interest in the countryside began a lifelong passion for drawing landscapes in both pencil and watercolour, initially of Kent, "the Garden of England", and the Thames with its sailing vessels and old buildings.

In 1929 Hilder was commissioned by Shell Mex Ltd to illustrate "Then and Now", a travel guide which started a long relationship with the company with posters sponsored by them.

In 1953 when asked by the publisher George Rainbird to provide background landscapes to a series of wildflowers by another artist, Hilder showed him pictures of flowers by his wife Edith.