Quotes Here are comments made by others,
Two tributes from Lord Kenneth Clark, one of the greatest art critics of the 20th.century - former director of the National Gallery and writer and presenter of the acclaimed 'Civilisation' TV series:
Lord Clark said of Hitchcock that he is 'many men thick', meaning that he has 'the power of recreating forms so that they become expressive of the artist's own epoch and yet keep a relationship with the past.'
'I can tell you sincerely that I am very much moved and impressed. It is rare to find an unashamedly romantic and literary artist. All criticism in the first half of the century was against them, so I not only admire Hitchcock's poetical imagination, but also his courage in persevering in his true style.' - Lord Clark
'He really is a most extraordinary artist. One can look at his work for a long time and find each time a great deal that is new.' – Lord Clark
'I applaud the force and intensity of Hitchcock's vision and the skill with which it is captured on canvas.' – John Russell Taylor, Art Critic, The Times Newspaper
'He is truly remarkable – a phenomenon whose contact with the unconcious patterns of art is really unique and I am so happy thast the V&A have seen the light and acquired some of his work' - Sir Laurens van der Post, Anthropologist, Author of 'Lost World Of The Kalahari', 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' etc.
The painter and writer Julian Bell said of Hitchcock's work: 'Twentieth century culture marginalizes the idea of the sacred totally. Producing this light, that's more than natural, makes it quite possible to think about sacredness. He has placed himself as a painter at an original angle to his age.'
'…beneath the bejewelled surface there is always an ingenious, dedicated intelligence at work, developing and resolving complex formal problems.' - Julian Bell, Artist, Art Critic and Writer
'… much of his work has a kind of fairy tale quality and escape into a world of peace and beauty…' - The Duke of Bedford
'… the light is alive. It blazes and shimmers in painting after painting, illuminating corners of the darkest forest. Not since Monet has a painter been absorbed by light as Hitchcock is – he paints it with a technical mastery that leaves other painters amazed.' - Shirley Deane, Art Curator
'In a world of imitators, he seems to me to be virtually inimitable. To use a musical parallel, he is a mixture of Delius and Mozart. On the surface there is a soft and trance-like quality, with everything suggested and nothing emphasized. But just underneath this surface – which one feels can be peeled off like a skin – the structure of the composition is firm as a rock and the detail hard as a diamond. Thus though there appears to be much of the mystic, the medievalist in him, he is never far from reality. Indeed, this is what all his pictures insist on; in the imagination is the truth and he makes his people, faces, buildings all blend into that central truth which he so clearly finds in nature. Perhaps, apart from being such a superb craftsman, he is not so far off the mark as a philosopher either. 'We are the such stuff as dreams are made of'. - Gordon Brook-Shepherd CBE - Journalist and Biographer
'…it is still part of modern man's history and folklore that golden ages have existed.' 'The composition and light of Claud Lorrain, the light and drama of Turner's mature composition…. are present in his work….. Turner is never criticized for using the pictorial language of Claud because the achievements and intentions of the two artist were different. In Hitchcock's work the same is true. The effect is one of great individuality.' – Christopher Wright, Art Historian
'The Paintings Of Harold Hitchcock are windows opening out onto the world of wonderful dreams, magical forests of exotic trees, leaves and flowers and of deep silence' - Paul Gallico – Pulitzer Prize winning author of 'The Poseidon Adventure' & 'The Snowgoose' etc
'The effect draws the viewer into the painting, almost as if to enter the scene, turning as one would to experience the whole setting of that foreign yet familiar place of our dreams and imaginings. Hitchcock renders the places of our subconscious, which are easily recognized but impossible to describe.' - Lisa Crawford Watson
Lord Clark said of Hitchcock that he is 'many men thick', meaning that he has 'the power of recreating forms so that they become expressive of the artist's own epoch and yet keep a relationship with the past.'