Robert Polhill Bevan (1865-1925)

'Bevan needed a primitive environment and unspoiled countryside to be at his best. He found this initially in Brittany where he worked with Gauguin. He went to Brittany for the first time in 1891 and, judging by the evidence of his drawings, he was captivated by the country and its people. Perhaps his most eloquent drawings are of women in their distinctive Breton costume. The young girls are drawn with an exquisite tenderness, the old women with compassion and respect. Technically, these drawings are superb, but it is the artist's personal response which makes them works of art' (see M. Connett, Walter Sickert and the Camden Town Group, London, 1992, p. 60).

We are grateful to Patrick Baty for his assistance cataloguing lots 89 and 90.