HILL, AMELIA R. A native of Dunfermline, she lived many years in Edinburgh.  A sister of Sir Noel and Walter H. Paton, she married D. O. Hill, of the Royal Scottish Academy.  Mrs. Hill made busts of Thomas Carlyle, Sir David Brewster, Sir Noel Paton, Richard Irven, of New York, and others.  She also executed many ideal figures.  She was the sculptor of the memorial to the Regent Murray at Linlithgow, of the statue of Captain Cook, and that of Dr. Livingstone; the latter was unveiled in Prince’s Gardens, Edinburgh, in 1876, and is said to be the first work of this kind executed by a woman and erected in a public square in Great Britain.

“Mrs. Hill has mastered great difficulties in becoming a sculptor in established practice.”—­Mrs. Tytler’s “Modern Painters."

“Mrs. Hill’s Captain Cook—­R.  Scottish Academy, 1874—­is an interesting figure and a perfectly faithful likeness, according to extant portraits of the great circumnavigator.”—­Art Journal, April, 1874.

HILLS, LAURA COOMBS. Medal at Art Interchange, 1895; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; silver medal, Pan-American Exposition, 1901; second prize, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D. C, 1901.  Member of Society of American Artists, Women’s Art Club, New York, American Society of Miniature Painters, and Water-Color Club, Boston.  Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  Studied in Helen M. Knowlton’s studio and at Cowles Art School, Boston, and at Art Students’ League, New York.

[Illustration:  MINIATURE OF PERSIS BLAIR

LAURA COOMBS HILLS]

Miss Hills is a prominent and successful miniaturist, and her numerous pictures are in the possession of her subjects.  They are decidedly individual in character.  No matter how simple her arrangements, she gives her pictures a cachet of distinction.  It may be “a lady in a black gown with a black aigrette in her hair and a background of delicate turquoise blue, or the delicate profile of a red-haired beauty, outlined against tapestry, the snowy head and shoulders rising out of dusky brown velvet; but the effect is gem-like, a revelation of exquisite coloring that is entirely artistic.”

“An attractive work,” reproduced here, “may be called a miniature picture.  It is a portrait of a little lady, apparently six or seven years old, in an artistic old-fashioned gown, the bodice low in neck and cut in sharp point at the waist line in front; elbow sleeves, slippers with large rosettes, just peeping out from her dress, her feet not touching the floor, so high is she seated.  Her hair, curling about her face, is held back by a ribbon bandeau in front; one long, heavy curl rests on the left side of her neck, and is surmounted by a big butterfly bow.  The costume and pose are delightful and striking at first sight, but the more the picture is studied the more the face attracts the attention it merits.  It is a sweet little girl’s face, modest and sensible.  She is holding the arm of her seat with a sort of determination to sit that way and be looked at so long as she must, but her expression shows that she is thinking hard of something that she intends to do so soon as she can jump down and run away to her more interesting occupations.”