Robert Polhill Bevan studied at Westminster School of Art and the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1894 he met Gauguin in Pont-Aven. From 1922 until his death he was a member of the New English Art Club.
Robert Polhill Bevan was an animal painter who specialised in depicting horses, whether on the farm or at the races. He was also a landscape painter who certainly spent time in Poland, where he painted numerous views. Gerald Schurr mentions him in particular for his drawings, whose overall harmony and three-dimensional power are comparable to the work of Seurat.
Group Exhibitions
2007, British Vision: Observation and Imagination 1750-1950, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent
2008, Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group, Tate Britain, London
2008, From Sickert to Gertler: Modern British Art from Boxted House, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Solo Exhibitions
1926, Robert Bevan Memorial Exhibition, Public Art Gallery, Brighton
1956, Arts Council of Great Britain, London
1965, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (centenary exhibition)
1974, Robert Bevan: the Complete Graphic Works, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London
1981, Robert Bevan 1865-1925: Drawings and Watercolours, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London
2008, A Countryman in Town: Robert Bevan and the Cumberland Market Group, Southampton City Art Gallery
Museum and Gallery Holdings
Auckland (City AG): The Well at Mydlow, Poland (1909, oil on canvas)
Boston (MFA): Adelaide Road, N.W. (1922, oil on canvas)
Brighton (Mus. & AG): The Cabyard at Night (c. 1909-1910, oil on canvas); Rosemary, La Vallee (1916, oil on canvas)
Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Mus.): The Polish Tavern (1901-1903, oil on canvas)
Cardiff (Nat. Mus. of Wales): Maples at Cuckfield, Sussex (1914, oil on canvas)
Liverpool (Walker AG): Under the Hammer (1914, oil on canvas)
London (National Portrait Gal.): Robert Polhill Bevan (1913-1914, oil on canvas); Stanislawa Bevan (née de Karlowska) (1920, oil on canvas)
London (Royal Albert Memorial Mus.): A Devonshire Valley (1913, oil on canvas)
London (Tate Collection): The Cab Horse (exhibited in 1910, oil on canvas); Horse Sale at the Barbican (1912, oil on canvas)
Manchester (AG): Horse Dealers (Sale at Ward’s Repository No.1) (1918, oil on canvas)
Oxford (Ashmolean Mus.): Showing at Tattersalls (oil on canvas)
Southampton (City AG): A Sale at Tattersalls (1911, oil on canvas); Cumberland Market, North Side (1912, oil on canvas)
Walsall (New AG): Breton Women Outside Church
