Robert Bevan (Robert Polhill Bevan; born August 5, 1865 – died July 8, 1925) – British artist of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, landscape painter and lithographer, master of bright and pure colors in English fine art. The work of Robert Bevan is closely linked with the biography of the master, reflecting the milestones of his life, range of interests, favorite places and images. His paintings, filled with warm summer colors, are dedicated to picturesque rural spaces, the charm and beauty of horses, passionate hunting, the faces of loved ones and dear ones.

Biography of Robert Bevan

Robert Bevan was born on August 5, 1865 in the small resort town of Hove in East Sussex on the English Channel. The fourth of six children in a distinguished British family, he received a classical English upbringing. In his youth, he enjoyed taking drawing lessons: first at home with the artist Arthur Ernest Pearce, and then with Frederick Brown at the Westminster School of Art.

At the beginning of his creative career, Robert Bevan established connections with representatives of the continental avant-garde, which influenced his further development as an artist. In the autumn of 1889, he went to Paris and began studying at the Academie Julian. It was here, in an atmosphere of constant competition with talented and ambitious young people, that Robert first learned about the latest achievements of French painting, made acquaintances with Paul Serusier, Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard.

Financial support from his father freed the young man from the need to earn a living. At 25, he enjoyed freedom and comfort, indulging his main passions – painting, hunting, horse racing. In the summer of 1890, he attended the Breton school-commune in Pont-Aven in northern France, where he made friends with Gauguin and Renoir. A year later, in the company of Joseph Crawhall, Robert went first to Spain and then to Tangier (Morocco) to study the works of Velazquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez) and Goya (Francisco Jose de Goya), but preferred fox hunting, leaving the works he had started unfinished. And in 1893 he went to Brittany again and began to enthusiastically engage in lithography.

Upon returning to England in 1894, Robert Bevan settled on a farm in Hawkridge, in the west of Somerset. For the next three years he led a solitary life, painting and hunting. Using oil paints, watercolours and lithography, he painted rural landscapes and hunting scenes.

After his marriage to the Polish artist Stanislawa de Karlowska in December 1897, the artist’s passion for hunting ended in his life and painting. But rural themes, fueled by his habit of spending summer months in country estates, would remain in his paintings until the end of his life.

Robert Bevan’s first solo exhibition took place only in 1905 at the Baillie Gallery. The paintings, executed in the style of post-impressionism, did not impress the public. The “uncompromising, violent and screaming colours” were particularly negatively assessed. Later, art critics would call Bevan the founder of the modern English school and the first Englishman in the 20th century to use pure colour.

In 1908, Robert Bevan entered an active period in his life and work. His paintings attracted the attention of Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore, English post-impressionist artists. At their invitation, Bevan joined the Camden Town group founded by Walter Richard Sickert, bringing his knowledge of contemporary French art to it. In 1914, he actively participated in the creation and formation of the united Cumberland Market group.

The artist’s dynamic activity was interrupted by the First World War, and then by an unexpected illness. On July 8, 1925, at the age of 59, Robert Bevan died.