Many things about Timothy Hyman’s paintings are immediately clear: his passion for London — his City, his Place — and his detailed painterly investigation of his own place in that city, where he fits in and in what way he belongs, and his absorption in the question of how cities have been painted in the past. From his clear and scholarly writings — he writes like a painter, not an historian, which is why his work means so much to so many artists — we know of his love of Indian Art, of Bonnard, Blake and Kirchner, and perhaps above all of Sienese Painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. We can see him as the history painter that he is — partly. It is not difficult to identify with his teasing out of his memories, the importance of his relationships with his friends, and, in particular, his love for his partner Judith, who has appeared again and again in the work throughout the last twenty years. These portraits of her are among his very few depictions of serenity and tranquillity, with no hint of the apocalyptic aspect that looms so large in some of his other works. They are not just documenting his time with her, or catching a moment in the narrative of his life, but painted as though in amazement at this love that has been bestowed on him. To a very considerable extent, I believe his work is an inspired lifetime’s dialogue with Judith.
— From the 2008 essay by Tess Jaray RA which served as the catalogue introduction for Timothy Hyman’s 2009 exhibition at Austin/Desmond, The Man Inscribed with London.
“We have lost a great man, artist, teacher, friend. Such a powerful inspiration and mentor to so many artists and writers, he was certain and questioning, powerful and vulnerable, a great listener and scholar. Tim helped us build the Drawing School and taught there for 25 years. It would have been a much duller, less interesting place without him, of course, and so many of us owe him and loved him so much. When we first started, Christopher Le Brun said ‘we need Tim’ and how right he was.” — Catherine Goodman CBE LVO, Founding Artistic Director Royal Drawing School.
Guardian obituary, 15 November 2024.