Jerome Hill

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Jerome Hill (born March 2, 1905 in St. Paul , Minnesota , † November 21, 1972 in New York City ) was an American painter, filmmaker, producer, composer, art patron and philanthropist .

Hill achieved special importance as a patron . He was a member of the extremely wealthy "railway dynasty" of St. Paul and co-heir of the fortune of James J. Hill , his grandfather. His father owned paintings by Camille Corot , Henri Rousseau and Eugène Delacroix , and Jerome took painting lessons as a child. In the late 1920s he bought a house in Cassis, France, where he lived most of his life. Here he painted over 300 pictures over the years and began making films. The focus of his cinematic work was on biographical documentation. After his military service in World War II , he created the first self-produced film in 1950, a portrait of the well-known naive painter Grandma Moses , which was followed in 1957 by the Academy Award ("Oscar") documentary on the doctor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer . In 1961 he shot The Sand Castle , a portrait of the eminent psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung . Best known today is the autobiographical film Portrait from 1973, which is one of the few national film documents held by the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress (Washington, DC).

During the 1960s and 1970s, Hill set up several endowment funds to promote the arts. The Avon Foundation ( Jerome Foundation ) and the Camargo Foundation , which still exist today, support artists, students and non-commercial art associations. He made a name for himself as a sponsor of the Film Makers 'Cooperative in New York and as a friend and sponsor of Fluxus artist George Maciunas , with whom he established SoHo's reputation as an artists' quarter .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1932: La Cartomancienne
  • 1938: Ski Flight
  • 1950: Grandma Moses
  • 1957: Albert Schweitzer
  • 1961: The Sand Castle
  • 1964: Open the Door and See All the People
  • 1973: film portrait

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hill, Jerome
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter, filmmaker, producer, and art promoter
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Paul , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1972
Place of death New York City