The Camden Town Group in Context

On the reverse of this sketch the sitter’s son Robert A. Bevan wrote that it depicts Robert Bevan and was possibly drawn by Arthur Ernest Pearce, his first art tutor. The study shows Bevan painting outside with a sketchbook or wooden panel on his lap, a palette in his left hand (with a water or turpentine holder) and a paintbrush in his right. Bevan was brought up in the village of Cuckfield in Sussex and in his youth he was a keen huntsman. In this sketch he is wearing plus fours and a smart cap, jacket and shoes. His terrier dog sits beside him (with another study of it above). The drawing is referenced in Frances Stenlake, Robert Bevan: From Gauguin to Camden Town, London 2008, p.12.