Lot Essay
Hilton painted less and less after he and Rose moved from London to Cornwall for good in 1965 leaving the majority of paintings at Waddington Galleries with whom he remained under contract. In 1968, after increasing drinking problems, including a series of drunken driving charges, Hilton spent some time 'drying out' at a hospital in London; however, that year he received the award of C.B.E. at which point he started drinking again and refused treatment. 1969 was a difficult period of financial worries and increasing effects of alcoholism. (see A. Lewis in Roger Hilton, South Bank Centre exhibition catalogue, London, 1993, pp.113-14).