Adrian Hill

Overview

Adrian Hill was a British artist who served as an official war artist during the First World War. In 1938, while recovering from tuberculosis at a sanatorium in Midhurst, England, he passed the time drawing objects he could see from his hospital bed, and he found the work helped his recovery. The next year, the sanatorium invited him to teach drawing and painting to other patients, starting with soldiers injured in the Second World War. He is credited with coining the term “art therapy” in 1942, and in 1945 he described his ideas in a book called Art Versus Illness.

Why He Matters

Hill named the practice, and that name helped it grow into a field. His idea came from his own experience as a patient, when drawing helped him recover from tuberculosis. His story focuses on what making art does for the person, not on how the finished picture looks, and that focus still shapes how art therapists work today. What began with a sketchbook in a hospital bed is now a profession with degrees, credentials, and research behind it.