Polly Knipp Hill, Green Benches. Etching, 8 by 9 ¾ inches.
Polly Knipp Hill was, inspite of her quiet appearance, known widely as one of America’s best etchers. After graduating from college she worked in New York City as a commercial artist doing free lance fashion drawings. After two years in the city Polly left for Europe where she met and married artist George Snow Hill. The Hills came to the United States briefly and then returned to Paris to sketch in Normandy, Bruges, Belgium and in Concarneau, Brittany. Polly Hill’s etchings were chosen for exhibition in the Fine Prints of the Year, an annual collection which showed the 50 best prints made in America. Summer Idyll appeared in 1930; Thrashing Dinner in 1931; Country Auction in 1932, and To Green Pastures, in 1933. In New York City art critic Royal Cortissoz wrote of her Thrashing Dinner, she “raises her art to a higher power through the play of a faintly satrical emotion.” Margaret Breuning, critic of the New York Journal American said of Hill’s work, “She has rendered the fruit of keen observation and sensibility in a highly personal and engaging use of her medium.” Anna Olmsted, director of the Syracuse Museum, in reviewing a group of etchings by Hill said, “In studying the various prints, delightfully spread out for our delectation, it seems to us that every qualification that marks a seasoned etcher is apparent. Here are to be found a consummate feeling for line and mass withal; and balance and above all, a certain joyous verve and bias for beauty.”
In 1935 Hill was working for the Florida Art Project as part of the Works Project Administration. Six of her etchings were given to the Florida State College for Women. Her Black Madonna was included in One Hundred Selected Prints of the Year, shown at Grand Central Galleries in New York City. The St. Petersburg Times, February 11, 1945, describes Hill and her work at an Art Club of St. Petersburg exhibit, “Among the numerous prints is one of Mrs. Hill’s latest etchings ‘Green Benches’ which won first prize in the black and white division of the Florida Federation of Art exhibition last autumn at Sarasota. It has also been shown in Chicago and New York. Mrs. Hill enjoys putting people in her etchings, provided the group is intent on doing things that interest them. She has depicted, with great success, other characteristic scenes in and around St. Petersburg, fishing from the bridge at Johns Pass, picnicking on the beach, so that she is accumulating a series of typical local scenes concerned with people, crowds of people, enjoying life in this locale.”
When the Hill’s held a joint exhibit at the Art Club in February of 1954, the Times reported, “Mrs. Hill will exhibit some of her well loved Florida etchings, including ‘Florida Fish Fry.’ Under the name, ‘Friture des Poisons,’ this picture is now touring France in an exhibition of American prints. Also exhibited are her ‘Arcadian Etchings,’ which have brought her national fame. Bringing this series up to date is ‘Grandma’s Cold Cellar,’ currently on exhibit at the Findlay Galleries, Chicago and Kennedy Galleries, N.Y., exhibition of American artists.”
Polly Knipp Hill. Giant Rubber Tree. Etching, 54 of 67, 7 by 9 inches.
Born: Ithaca, New York.
Education: Syracuse University College of Fine Arts; University of Illinois; Chesterton Branch Perse School, Cambridge, England; Academy Colarossi, Paris.
Membership: Art Club of St. Petersburg; Florida Federation of Art; Florida Artist Group; American Society of Etchers; Chicago Society of Etchers; Philadelphia Society of Etchers; Southern Printmakers; Southern States Art League; Clearwater Art Museum; National League of American Pen Women.
Exhibits: Florida Federation of Art, 1932, 1st prize, etching, Place du Tertre, Paris; Art Club of St. Petersburg, February 1933, fifty-one etchings; National Academy of Design, March 1933, Fox and Geese; Gainesville Association of Fine Arts, new studio, 131 Union Street, Gainesville, February 9, 1934, presented association with etching, Pont Neuf; Art Club of St. Petersburg, March 1935; Smithsonian Institution, fifty etchings, 1936; Student Art Club, Tampa, January 20, 1937; Federal Art Galleries, St. Petersburg, 415, 3rd Avenue South, December 1937, January 1938, fifty-three etchings; Clearwater Art Museum, August 1941, sixteen etchings, including Girl With Fur Coat, Black Madonna, Baby Hippen; Florida Federation of Art Annual, Palm Beach, December 1942, best black & white, Picnic at the Beach; Clearwater Art Museum, 8th Annual Members Exhibit, February 1942, Cat Shaking, After the Quilting, Picnic at the Beach; Clearwater Art Museum, 9th Annual Exhibit, March 1943; Florida Federation of Art, 16th Annual, St. Petersburg, December 1943, John’s Pass; Florida Federation of Art 18th Annual, Sarasota, December 1944, 1st prize, Green Benches; Clearwater Art Museum, 10th Annual Exhibit, March 1944; Clearwater Art Museum, Florida Gulf Coast Art Group, 4th Annual Exhibit, circuit toured the state, 1944-1945; Florida Federation of Art, 1944, Annual Circuit, paintings exhibit at Jacksonville Woman’s Club, February-March 1945, 1st prize, etchings, Green Benches; Art Club of St. Petersburg, February 1945, one woman exhibit; Florida Gulf Coast Group, sponsorship of Clearwater Art Museum, 4th Annual Exhibit and nation wide circuit, July 1945 to May 1946, etchings, John’s Pass, Green Benches-St. Petersburg, Picinic on the Beach, Swamp Road; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 5th Annual, nation wide circuit, July 1946-May 1947, etchings, Cat Shaking, Pine and Palm; Florida Federation of Art, 20th Annual Circuit, 1946, award, etching, Fourth of July in Arcadia; Clearwater Art Museum, February 1947, President’s Prize, Haymow in Arcadia; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 6th Annual, nation wide circuit, July 1947-May 1948, etchings, Woodcutters, Hay Wagon, Haymow in Arcadia; National Academy of Design, New York City, 1948, 1st prize, etching; Miami Beach Art Center, November 1948; Florida Federation of Art, 1949, Frank French Memorial Award, best engraving or etching, Seashell in The Parlor; Florida Gulf Coast Group, sponsorship, Clearwater Art Museum, 7th Annual nation wide circuit, July 1948 to May 1949, etching and aquatint, Man Hunt, etching, Fourth of July in Arcadia; Clearwater Art Museum, 15th Annual Member Exhibit, March 1949, honorable mention, drawing in sanguine, Miss Martha James; Clearwater Art Museum, December 1949, Christmas Exhibition, Seashell in the Parlor, one of a group from the Arcadia Series; Prize Prints of the Twentieth Century, 1949, Cat Shaking; Clearwater Art Museum, 16th Annual Members Show, March 20, 1950, Hobart Award, Haymow in Arcadia; Florida Artist Group, 2nd Annual national circuit, shown under auspices of the University of Florida art department, May 1951 to April 1952, J. Gibbes Chesnut Purchase Award, Music Camp. Feragil Galleries, New York City; Syracuse Museum, Syracuse, New York; Brooks Memorial Gallery, Memphis, Tennissee.
Directory: Listed in the St. Petersburg City Directory in 1959, 1960 as an artist with studio at 2233 Greenway South.
