Robert Bevan
Encyclopedia
Robert Polhill Bevan was an English
painter, draughtsman
and lithographer. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group
, the London Group
, and the Cumberland Market Group
.
, near Brighton
, the fourth of six children of Richard Alexander Bevan and Laura Maria Polhill. The Bevans had been a Quaker family with long associations with Barclays Bank. They were descended from Silvanus Bevan
the Plough Court apothecary
and Robert Barclay
the Quaker Apologist. The family, who could trace direct descent from Iestyn ap Gwrgant
, had left Wales
in the 17th century and settled in London
.
His first teacher of drawing was Arthur Ernest Pearce, who later became head designer to Royal Doulton
potteries. In 1888 he studied art under Fred Brown at the Westminster School of Art
before moving to the Académie Julian
in Paris
. Amongst his fellow students were Paul Sérusier
, Pierre Bonnard
, Edouard Vuillard
and Maurice Denis
. Bevan made his first visit to Brittany
with a fellow student Eric Forbes-Robertson
in 1890 and stayed at the Villa Julia, in Pont-Aven
. He made a second visit in the autumn of the following year before travelling to Morocco
by way of Madrid
to study Velasquez and Goya at first hand. He appears to have done more fox-hunting in Tangier
than drawing in the company of the artists Joseph Crawhall
and George Denholm Armour and was Master of the Tangier Hunt in his second season.
Bevan returned to Brittany in 1893. There is no evidence that he had ever met Van Gogh but it is obvious in the swirling trees and landscape of his Breton drawings that he knew his work. It is known that he was friendly with Paul Gauguin
, who gave him several prints. Bevan also received encouragement from Renoir
, particularly in his drawing of horses. Although not evident in the few paintings that survive from this period it is in his drawings, early prints and two surviving wax panels that the obvious influence of Pont-Aven
synthetism
can be seen.
On his return to England in 1894 Bevan went to live on Exmoor
where he was able to combine painting with hunting.
in Jersey. At the end of the year Bevan and de Karłowska married in Warsaw. Her father had extensive land in central Poland
and for the remainder of their married life they would make long summer visits there.
In 1900 the Bevans settled in London at 14 Adamson Road, Swiss Cottage
. Their first child, Edith Halina (Mrs Charles Baty), had been born in December 1898 and their second, Robert Alexander
, in March 1901.
The summers of 1901, 1903 and 1904 were spent in Poland and it was here that some of his most colourful work was produced. The influence of Gauguin was a key role in Bevan's development, helping him to discover the pure colour which led him to a premature Fauvism
in 1904. His Courtyard of that year has been described as “one of the first exercises in the expressive use of pure colour in this century”. Bevan's early experiments in colour can also be seen in his The Mill Pool which recalls the Talisman picture that Serusier painted to Gauguin's instructions and was described as being “quite different in colour and really rather superior”. However his first one-man exhibition in 1905, which contained probably the most radical paintings by a British artist at that time, was not a commercial success and was hardly noticed by the critics. "Bevan evidently lost confidence in the direction it pointed and never again produced so outstanding a painting of this type. Sir Philip Hendy
, in his preface to the 1961 Bevan retrospective exhibition at Colnaghi's, commented that Bevan was perhaps the first Englishman to use pure colour in the 20th Century. He was certainly far in advance of his Camden Town colleagues in this respect."
Bevan’s second exhibition, in 1908, of largely Sussex scenes included the first of his paintings in the divisionist
or pointillist style of which the best examples are Ploughing on the Downs
(Aberdeen Art Gallery
) and The Turn-Rice Plough
(Yale Center for British Art
).
In the same year Bevan submitted five works to the first Allied Artists’ Association in London’s Albert Hall
—a non-juried, subscription show founded by Frank Rutter
to promote progressive artists and based on the French Salon des Indépendants. (Wassily Kandinsky
showed in England for the first time at the second exhibition in 1909.)
Having worked largely in isolation since returning from Pont-Aven
, Bevan’s paintings were noticed by Harold Gilman
and Spencer Gore
and he was invited to join Walter Sickert
’s Fitzroy Street Group. It was Sickert who encouraged him to "paint what really interests you and look around and see the beauty of everyday things" Thus began a series of paintings recording the decline of the horse cab
trade, for example The Cab Horse (Tate
gallery).
was founded. The end of that year saw Bevan moving away from the portrayal of the cab yards to the London horse sales at Tattersalls
, Aldridges, the Barbican, and Wards (see Horse Sale at the Barbican, Tate Gallery
and Under the Hammer, Walker Art Gallery
, Liverpool
).
The Camden Town Group was short-lived. After three financially unsuccessful exhibitions Arthur Clifton, who ran the Carfax Gallery, declined to hold any more. However he still continued to back individual members and Bevan had his third one-man show there in 1913.
In 1913, The Cabyard, Night, the only painting by Bevan acquired for a public collection during his lifetime, was bought by the Contemporary Art Society on Frank Rutter
's recommendation that they should obtain it for the nation before a more discerning collector bought it.
William Marchant, of the Goupil Gallery, offered his larger premises on condition that the Group was expanded and that it changed its name.
This resulted in the formation of the London Group
in the autumn of 1913. Harold Gilman
was elected president, J.B. Manson
secretary and Bevan treasurer.
From April 1914 until September 1915 Bevan rented a studio in Cumberland Market
, London’s hay and straw market in Camden Town
. It was here that the Cumberland Market Group
consisting of Bevan, Gilman, Charles Ginner
and John Nash
held Saturday afternoon ‘at homes’. The four exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in May 1915 and were later joined by Edward McKnight Kauffer
and C.R.W. Nevinson.
Bevan spent most of his summers painting. Until the First World War this was usually at family homes in Poland or Sussex
. However, at about this time, he was first invited down to the Blackdown Hills
on the Devon
-Somerset
border as a guest of landowner and amateur artist Harold Harrison. Until the end of his life Bevan continued to paint in the Bolham
valley and nearby Luppitt
his angular style sitting well with the strong patterning of the landscape.
His London street scenes, which were largely in the area of St John's Wood
and Belsize Park
, were generally more favourably reviewed than his landscapes.
After a break of nearly twenty years Bevan returned to lithography
. Whilst his earlier prints recall landscapes by Van Gogh the later works are more in the nature of tone translations of oil paintings. "In either instance they are technically superb and notable additions to English lithography of the period."
In 1922 he was elected to the New English Art Club
.
Bevan died on 8 July 1925, following an operation for stomach cancer.
Bevan’s modesty and reticence and his “almost complete inability to put himself forward” ensured that most of his works were unsold and a considerable number were left to his wife on his death. Stanislawa Bevan left her estate equally between her son R.A. Bevan
and daughter Mrs Charles Baty. In 1961 they presented the Ashmolean Museum
, Oxford
with The Bevan Gift in honour of their parents’ work. As well as a number of paintings, drawings and lithographs this included the 27 surviving Bevan sketchbooks. Further works were added subsequently.
He was one of nine out of the 17-strong Camden Town Group to be shown in a major retrospective of the group at Tate Britain
in London in 2008.
Works by Bevan can be found in many public collections in the United Kingdom. He is also represented in public collections in Australia; France; New Zealand; South Africa and the USA.
Robert Bevan was the great grandfather of the historian of architectural paint and colour, Patrick Baty
.
from 26 September – 14 December 2008 and it moved to Abbot Hall Art Gallery
from 13 January – 21 March 2009.
More works were recently seen in an exhibition held at Gainsborough
’s House, Sudbury
, in Suffolk from 4 October to 13 December 2008. The show was entitled From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted
House.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
painter, draughtsman
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
and lithographer. He was a founding member of the Camden Town Group
Camden Town Group
The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists active 1911-1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London.-History:...
, the London Group
London Group
The London Group is an artists' exhibiting society based in London, England, founded in 1913, when the Camden Town Group came together with the English Vorticists and other independent artists to challenge the domination of the Royal Academy, which had become unadventurous and conservative....
, and the Cumberland Market Group
Cumberland Market Group
The Cumberland Market Group was a short-lived artistic grouping in early twentieth century London. The group met in the studio of Robert Bevan in Cumberland Market, the old hay and straw market off Albany Street, and held one exhibition.-History:...
.
Early life
He was born in Brunswick Square, HoveHove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, near Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, the fourth of six children of Richard Alexander Bevan and Laura Maria Polhill. The Bevans had been a Quaker family with long associations with Barclays Bank. They were descended from Silvanus Bevan
Silvanus Bevan
Silvanus Bevan was an apothecary, who founded the successful firm of Allen & Hanburys.He was born into a prosperous Welsh Quaker family. His father was also called Silvanus Bevan...
the Plough Court apothecary
Apothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
and Robert Barclay
Robert Barclay
Robert Barclay was a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was also governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s, although he himself never resided in the...
the Quaker Apologist. The family, who could trace direct descent from Iestyn ap Gwrgant
Iestyn ap Gwrgant
Iestyn ap Gwrgant was the last ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Morgannwg, which encompassed the counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire .- Lineage :...
, had left Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
in the 17th century and settled in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
His first teacher of drawing was Arthur Ernest Pearce, who later became head designer to Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton
The Royal Doulton Company is an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating to 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Spode, Wedgwood and Minton...
potteries. In 1888 he studied art under Fred Brown at the Westminster School of Art
Westminster School of Art
The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. It was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Architectural Museum.H. M. Bateman described it in 1903 as...
before moving to the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Amongst his fellow students were Paul Sérusier
Paul Sérusier
Paul Sérusier was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabi movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism.- Education :...
, Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
, Edouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
and Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis
Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...
. Bevan made his first visit to Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
with a fellow student Eric Forbes-Robertson
Eric Forbes-Robertson
Eric Forbes-Robertson was a British figure and landscape painter, the brother of two actors Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Norman Forbes ....
in 1890 and stayed at the Villa Julia, in Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French Pontavenistes.-History:...
. He made a second visit in the autumn of the following year before travelling to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
by way of Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to study Velasquez and Goya at first hand. He appears to have done more fox-hunting in Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
than drawing in the company of the artists Joseph Crawhall
Joseph Crawhall
Joseph Crawhall was an English artist born in Morpeth, Northumberland. He was the fourth child and second son of Joseph Crawhall II and Margaret Boyd. Crawhall specialised in painting animals and birds....
and George Denholm Armour and was Master of the Tangier Hunt in his second season.
Bevan returned to Brittany in 1893. There is no evidence that he had ever met Van Gogh but it is obvious in the swirling trees and landscape of his Breton drawings that he knew his work. It is known that he was friendly with Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, who gave him several prints. Bevan also received encouragement from Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
, particularly in his drawing of horses. Although not evident in the few paintings that survive from this period it is in his drawings, early prints and two surviving wax panels that the obvious influence of Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French Pontavenistes.-History:...
synthetism
Synthetism
Synthetism is a term used by post-Impressionist artists like Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin to distinguish their work from Impressionism. Earlier, Synthetism has been connected to the term Cloisonnism, and later to Symbolism...
can be seen.
On his return to England in 1894 Bevan went to live on Exmoor
Exmoor
Exmoor is an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England, named after the main river that flows out of the district, the River Exe. The moor has given its name to a National Park, which includes the Brendon Hills, the East Lyn Valley, the Vale of Porlock and ...
where he was able to combine painting with hunting.
Married life
In the summer of 1897 Bevan met the Polish painter Stanisława de Karłowska at the wedding of Polish art student Eric Forbes-RobertsonEric Forbes-Robertson
Eric Forbes-Robertson was a British figure and landscape painter, the brother of two actors Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Norman Forbes ....
in Jersey. At the end of the year Bevan and de Karłowska married in Warsaw. Her father had extensive land in central Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and for the remainder of their married life they would make long summer visits there.
In 1900 the Bevans settled in London at 14 Adamson Road, Swiss Cottage
Swiss Cottage
Swiss Cottage is a district of the London Borough of Camden in London, England. Thedistrict is located north-west of Charing Cross. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and is the location of Swiss Cottage tube station.-Etymology:...
. Their first child, Edith Halina (Mrs Charles Baty), had been born in December 1898 and their second, Robert Alexander
R.A. Bevan
Robert Alexander Polhill Bevan CBE was a significant figure in British communications and advertising during the mid-20th century...
, in March 1901.
The summers of 1901, 1903 and 1904 were spent in Poland and it was here that some of his most colourful work was produced. The influence of Gauguin was a key role in Bevan's development, helping him to discover the pure colour which led him to a premature Fauvism
Fauvism
Fauvism is the style of les Fauves , a short-lived and loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism...
in 1904. His Courtyard of that year has been described as “one of the first exercises in the expressive use of pure colour in this century”. Bevan's early experiments in colour can also be seen in his The Mill Pool which recalls the Talisman picture that Serusier painted to Gauguin's instructions and was described as being “quite different in colour and really rather superior”. However his first one-man exhibition in 1905, which contained probably the most radical paintings by a British artist at that time, was not a commercial success and was hardly noticed by the critics. "Bevan evidently lost confidence in the direction it pointed and never again produced so outstanding a painting of this type. Sir Philip Hendy
Philip Hendy
Sir Philip Anstiss Hendy was a British art curator who worked both in Britain and overseas, notably the United States. In 1923 he began his career in art administration as an Assistant Keeper and lecturer at the Wallace Collection in London, despite his having no formal training in art history...
, in his preface to the 1961 Bevan retrospective exhibition at Colnaghi's, commented that Bevan was perhaps the first Englishman to use pure colour in the 20th Century. He was certainly far in advance of his Camden Town colleagues in this respect."
Bevan’s second exhibition, in 1908, of largely Sussex scenes included the first of his paintings in the divisionist
Divisionism
Divisionism was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically....
or pointillist style of which the best examples are Ploughing on the Downs
Downs
-Places:In the 'hill' context, the word 'down' derives from Celtic dun "hill, hill fort".*Downland, a geographical feature*The North Downs and the South Downs, England, as a collective term*North Wessex Downs AONB, England...
(Aberdeen Art Gallery
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. It opened in 1885, in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie....
) and The Turn-Rice Plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
(Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
The Yale Center for British Art is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale University which houses the most comprehensive collection of British Art outside the United Kingdom...
).
In the same year Bevan submitted five works to the first Allied Artists’ Association in London’s Albert Hall
Albert Hall
Albert P. Hall is an American actor.Born in Brighton, Alabama, Hall graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts in 1971. That same year he appeared Off-Broadway in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and on Broadway in the Melvin Van Peebles musical Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death...
—a non-juried, subscription show founded by Frank Rutter
Frank Rutter
Francis Vane Phipson Rutter was a British art critic, curator and activist.In 1903, he became art critic for The Sunday Times, a position which he held for the rest of his life...
to promote progressive artists and based on the French Salon des Indépendants. (Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
showed in England for the first time at the second exhibition in 1909.)
Having worked largely in isolation since returning from Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven
Pont-Aven is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Pont-Aven are called in French Pontavenistes.-History:...
, Bevan’s paintings were noticed by Harold Gilman
Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman was a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group.-Early life and studies:...
and Spencer Gore
Spencer Gore (artist)
Spencer Frederick Gore was a British painter of landscapes, music-hall scenes and interiors, usually with single figures...
and he was invited to join Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
’s Fitzroy Street Group. It was Sickert who encouraged him to "paint what really interests you and look around and see the beauty of everyday things" Thus began a series of paintings recording the decline of the horse cab
Hansom cab
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...
trade, for example The Cab Horse (Tate
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
gallery).
The Camden Town Group
In May 1911 the decision was made to form a new exhibiting society from the ranks of Fitzroy Street and so the Camden Town GroupCamden Town Group
The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists active 1911-1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London.-History:...
was founded. The end of that year saw Bevan moving away from the portrayal of the cab yards to the London horse sales at Tattersalls
Tattersalls
Tattersalls is the main auctioneer of race horses in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1766 by Richard Tattersall , who had been stud groom to the second Duke of Kingston. The first premises occupied were near Hyde Park Corner, in what was then the outskirts of London...
, Aldridges, the Barbican, and Wards (see Horse Sale at the Barbican, Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
and Under the Hammer, Walker Art Gallery
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
).
The Camden Town Group was short-lived. After three financially unsuccessful exhibitions Arthur Clifton, who ran the Carfax Gallery, declined to hold any more. However he still continued to back individual members and Bevan had his third one-man show there in 1913.
In 1913, The Cabyard, Night, the only painting by Bevan acquired for a public collection during his lifetime, was bought by the Contemporary Art Society on Frank Rutter
Frank Rutter
Francis Vane Phipson Rutter was a British art critic, curator and activist.In 1903, he became art critic for The Sunday Times, a position which he held for the rest of his life...
's recommendation that they should obtain it for the nation before a more discerning collector bought it.
William Marchant, of the Goupil Gallery, offered his larger premises on condition that the Group was expanded and that it changed its name.
This resulted in the formation of the London Group
London Group
The London Group is an artists' exhibiting society based in London, England, founded in 1913, when the Camden Town Group came together with the English Vorticists and other independent artists to challenge the domination of the Royal Academy, which had become unadventurous and conservative....
in the autumn of 1913. Harold Gilman
Harold Gilman
The British artist Harold John Wilde Gilman was a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group.-Early life and studies:...
was elected president, J.B. Manson
J.B. Manson
James Bolivar Manson was an artist and worked at the Tate gallery for 25 years, being its Director 1930–1938. In the Tate's own evaluation he was the "least successful" of their Directors...
secretary and Bevan treasurer.
From April 1914 until September 1915 Bevan rented a studio in Cumberland Market
Cumberland Market
Cumberland Market was a London market between Regent's Park and Euston railway station. It was built in the early 19th century and was London's hay and straw market for a hundred years until the late 1920s. An arm of the Regent's Canal was built to the market. The market was surrounded by modest...
, London’s hay and straw market in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
. It was here that the Cumberland Market Group
Cumberland Market Group
The Cumberland Market Group was a short-lived artistic grouping in early twentieth century London. The group met in the studio of Robert Bevan in Cumberland Market, the old hay and straw market off Albany Street, and held one exhibition.-History:...
consisting of Bevan, Gilman, Charles Ginner
Charles Ginner
Charles Isaac Ginner was a painter of landscape and urban subjects. Born in the south of France at Cannes, of British parents, in 1910 he settled in London, where he was an associate of Spencer Gore and Harold Gilman and a key member of the Camden Town Group.-Early years and studies:Charles Isaac...
and John Nash
John Nash (artist)
John Northcote Nash CBE RA was a British painter of landscape and still-life, wood-engraver and illustrator, particularly of botanic works.-Biography:...
held Saturday afternoon ‘at homes’. The four exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in May 1915 and were later joined by Edward McKnight Kauffer
Edward McKnight Kauffer
Edward McKnight Kauffer was an influential American-born artist noted for his avant garde graphic design and poster art, especially in England....
and C.R.W. Nevinson.
Last years
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. However, at about this time, he was first invited down to the Blackdown Hills
Blackdown Hills
The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1991....
on the Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
-Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
border as a guest of landowner and amateur artist Harold Harrison. Until the end of his life Bevan continued to paint in the Bolham
Bolham, Devon
Bolham is a village in Devon, England....
valley and nearby Luppitt
Luppitt
Luppitt is a village and civil parish in East Devon situated about due north of Honiton....
his angular style sitting well with the strong patterning of the landscape.
His London street scenes, which were largely in the area of St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
and Belsize Park
Belsize Park
Belsize Park is an area of north-west London, England, in the London Borough of Camden.It is located north-west of Charing Cross and situated on the Northern Line. It borders Hampstead to the north and west, Kentish Town and Gospel Oak to the east, Camden Town to the south east and Primrose Hill...
, were generally more favourably reviewed than his landscapes.
After a break of nearly twenty years Bevan returned to lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
. Whilst his earlier prints recall landscapes by Van Gogh the later works are more in the nature of tone translations of oil paintings. "In either instance they are technically superb and notable additions to English lithography of the period."
In 1922 he was elected to the New English Art Club
New English Art Club
The New English Art Club was founded in London in 1885 as an alternate venue to the Royal Academy.-History:Young English artists returning from studying art in Paris mounted the first exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1886...
.
Bevan died on 8 July 1925, following an operation for stomach cancer.
Legacy
Despite memorial shows in 1926 and an Arts Council exhibition in 1956, his unique contribution to British art was not widely recognized until 1965, the centenary of his birth. In that year the artist's son published his memoir and organised a series of exhibitions.Bevan’s modesty and reticence and his “almost complete inability to put himself forward” ensured that most of his works were unsold and a considerable number were left to his wife on his death. Stanislawa Bevan left her estate equally between her son R.A. Bevan
R.A. Bevan
Robert Alexander Polhill Bevan CBE was a significant figure in British communications and advertising during the mid-20th century...
and daughter Mrs Charles Baty. In 1961 they presented the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
with The Bevan Gift in honour of their parents’ work. As well as a number of paintings, drawings and lithographs this included the 27 surviving Bevan sketchbooks. Further works were added subsequently.
He was one of nine out of the 17-strong Camden Town Group to be shown in a major retrospective of the group at Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
in London in 2008.
Works by Bevan can be found in many public collections in the United Kingdom. He is also represented in public collections in Australia; France; New Zealand; South Africa and the USA.
Robert Bevan was the great grandfather of the historian of architectural paint and colour, Patrick Baty
Patrick Baty
Patrick Baty, is a British historian of paint and colour, who works as a consultant in the decoration of historic buildings.-Early years:...
.
Works on show
An exhibition entitled A Countryman in Town: Robert Bevan and the Cumberland Market Group was held at the Southampton City Art GallerySouthampton City Art Gallery
The Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road.The gallery's art collection covers six centuries of European art history, with over 3,500 works. It is housed in an example of 1930s municipal architecture...
from 26 September – 14 December 2008 and it moved to Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Abbot Hall Art Gallery is a museum and gallery in Kendal, England. Abbot Hall was built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson, the second son of Daniel Wilson of Dallam Tower, a large house and country estate nearby. It was built on the site of the old Abbot’s Hall, roughly where the museum is today...
from 13 January – 21 March 2009.
More works were recently seen in an exhibition held at Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
’s House, Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...
, in Suffolk from 4 October to 13 December 2008. The show was entitled From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted
Boxted, Essex
Boxted is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately north of Colchester and northeast of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Colchester and in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a Parish council...
House.
External links
- Biography at the Tate Gallery
- The Camden School - to download book
- Bridgeman Art Library
- Polhill Family History
- Cuckfield Museum
Selected works
- Self Portrait (1913–14) http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=sa&sText=bevan&LinkID=mp00409&rNo=0&role=art
- Ploughing in Brittany (1893–94) http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=970&searchid=11017&tabview=image
- Breton Women outside Church (ca.1894) http://wag.adlibsoft.com/detail.aspx?parentpriref=
- The Well at Mydlow, Poland (1909)http://collection.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/collection/results.do?view=detail&db=object&id=3056
- A Sale at Tattersall's (1911) http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts/sotonartgallery/search/view-artwork.asp?acc_num=11/1974
- Horse Sale at the Barbican (1912) http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=968&searchid=10317&tabview=image
- Maples at Cuckfield (1914) http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/art/online/?action=show_item&item=79
- Queen's Road, St John's Wood (1918) http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1957.14.2.html
- Showing at Tattersall's (ca.1919) http://www.ashmolean.org/ash/objects/objectviews/WA1957.14.3.html