The Camden Town Group in Context

 Robert Bevan is an artist who occupies a unique position among the diverse manifestations of art which the term “Modern Movement” sums up and describes. And it is unique because his way of expressing himself is so strongly personal, and not because he is divorced from the spirit that animates the movement. He follows his own path with the seriousness and determination of the true artist and sincere painter.
 He may be counted a realist and thus affiliated to a movement which has always had a profound influence upon art. In all ages man has been inspired by a desire to interpret life realistically, in terms of paint; he has wanted to describe the actual realities of the life around him, to make something tangible out of his emotional reactions to it, something recognisably like his vision of it. To this end he has tried to obtain an insight into reality, and by his research has added to our knowledge of truth. Robert Bevan is a realist in that he is inspired by actualities, and finds reality [end of p.1]

 He gives us the impression of a country man who has taken up painting and become a great master of the art. The life that moulded him, the life of the English countryside to-day, is discovered to us in paintings of horses, grooms and stables, of farm buildings, village greens and downs, of cattle feeding in the meadows or watering at a ford, and this view of life, which might be called a squire’s vision of his world, is expressed with subtle intuition and rare artistry. Such work is of the first interest and importance in the history of English painting.
 Robert Bevan arrives at his result by a careful search for the exact tones which combine to produce the rich colours of English landscape; and by achieving a simplification of form which is the very essence of the fundamental construction of nature, and by an understanding, and application of the principles that govern the science of design.
 In landscape he can be compared with Cotman at his best. The great expanses of open country are deeply and [end of p.2]

 He is particularly happy in the way he arranges groups of figures: with unfailing instinct he places these groups in their one and only true relation to the central point of interest. In his paintings of horses this is very marked: it is as though every figure in the various groups of the composition combined to throw into high relief the predominating factor – the horse. The masses are arranged with perfect unity; nothing is scattered or diffused, but [end of p.3]

 Whatever this artist undertakes is given the same care, and worked out to its logical, its only possible and perfect conclusion: which is why the quality of his work is of an even excellence. The same clear insight, the same care in performance, the same deliberate concluding, rounding-off and finishing is shown in every painting or lithograph; always there is evident this power of accomplishing whatever he engages in.
 This delicacy of finish, which could not be without an exceeding fineness of perception of the tone values, gives a peculiar quality to his lithographs. These black and white prints have all the coloured richness of a painting, and a beauty of texture rarely found in such work. They will be very highly valued in days to come, not only by those to whom scenes of sporting and country life appeal, but by connoisseurs and lovers of “fine” things, who will not fail to appreciate their amazing “quality”.
 That Robert Bevan will be appreciated in England where these subjects arouse so much interest is certain. The Englishman’s curious feeling for, and sympathy with animal [end of p.4]

 Having compared Robert Bevan in his understanding of the right treatment of these subjects with our English Master Stubbs, we can go further afield and link him up with painters in other countries through whom the tradition he is observing passed and was handed on. Longhi and Brueghel took the same interest in external realities, and grouped the figures in their compositions, just as Bevan does, round one central idea. We need only consider Pietro Longhi’s “Exhibition of a Rhinocerus in an Arena”, which is in the National Gallery, in conjunction with one of Bevan’s “Tattersal” paintings to see the relationship. A comparative study of some of Brueghel’s work, of Hogarth’s “Stage Coach”, or “Country Yard at the Time of [end of p.5]

 It is strange that work of this quality should not meet with immediate and universal appreciation – but a new way of expressing truth is rarely accepted until its novelty has worn off. The painter who seeks to express his vision of the realities of his own time is seldom understood by his contemporaries, who are too busy with their own lives to see things in his detached and observant way; and their lives – their activities and surroundings – are his models. Eventually he is “discovered” and his vision of a new beauty accepted as a revelation – for the artist always comes into his own when his work is good.
 Robert Bevan’s future reputation is in the safe keeping of his own work.