Hitchens was born into a family of painters, the son of landscape artist Alfred Hitchens. His education began at Bedales and was followed by a year of training at the St. Johns Wood School of Art. He grew up in Berkshire, moved to New Zealand for two years after suffering from a severe illness and returned to England where he lived for the remainder of his life. In 1922, already a noted painter, he became a founding member of Seven and Five Society. In that same year he had his first one-man exhibition at The Mayor Gallery in London. In 1931, he became a member of The London Group and twenty years later he was awarded the Purchase Prize in the Arts Council Festival of Britain - 60 paintings in 51. In 1955 his first monograph, written by Patrick Heron, was published and in the following year a retrospective exhibition of his work was arranged by The British Council for the Venice Biennale. His work in the early thirties was influenced by Braque, but progressed and became individual, his trademark being double-square format abstract landscapes. After the bombing of his London home in 1940 he moved to Sussex, where he was to remain living and working. In the midst of his career in 1942, artists such as Hitchens, Hodgkins, Moore and Sutherland were grouped together and labelled the `Neo-Romantic' style.