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Artist or Maker: Robert Polhill Bevan (1865-1925)

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Description: The smithy, Bolham
signed 'BEVAN' (lower left) and stamped with studio stamp 'BEVAN' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
18 x 22 in. (45.7 x 55.9 cm.)
Painted in 1919.

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Provenance: The Executors of the late Robert Bevan, Stanislawa Bevan, and by descent to R.A. Bevan.
Commander and Mrs Gerald Holdsworth, by 1961.
Mrs F.A. Girling, her sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 March 1973, lot 58, where purchased by Fine Art Society.

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Exhibited: possibly London, Messrs Heal & Son, Mansard Gallery, London Group, Eleventh exhibition, November 1919, no. 62, as 'The Smithy'.
possibly Paris, Galerie Druet, Exposition d'un Groupe de Peintres "Anglais" Modernes, no. 5, as 'La Forge'.
probably London, Goupil Gallery (Salon), Eleventh Exhibition, November - December 1921, no. 178, as 'The Smithy'.
London, Goupil Gallery (Large Gallery), Robert Bevan Memorial Exhibition, February 1926, no. 163, as 'The Smithy, Bolham'.
Brighton, Public Art Galleries, Robert Bevan Memorial Exhibition, August 1926, no. 37, as 'The Smithy, Bolham'.

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Notes: Bevan worked in the vicinty of Bolham in Devon for four years until 1920, when he moved a few miles to the parish of Luppitt, also in Devon. R.A (Bobby) Bevan, the artist's son comments that his time at Bolham was 'productive' and it was while he lived here, the arist resumed his interest in lithography. The title of one of his lithographs was Smithy Barn, Bolham, a work again dating from 1919. (see R.A. Bevan, Robert Bevan A memoir by his son, London, 1965, p. 22 and G. Dry, Robert Bevan 1865-1925, London, 1968, no. 26).

We are very grateful to Patrick Baty for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entry for this lot.

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