Robert Bevan
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Horsgate, Hanlye Lane, Cuckfield (above), where the artist Robert Bevan (1865-1925) was brought up. |
The museum's mantrap where it used to stand in the Horsgate Stableyard (above). |
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Preparatory drawing for Ploughing on the Downs (below), in Aberdeen Art Gallery |
Preparatory drawing for The Town Field (below), Horsgate 1914, in Reading Museum. The museum has recently been given this drawing. |
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His father, Richard, a Barclays banker, known as "Cuckfield's leading citizen", instigated the building of the Queen's Hall and many of the objects in the museum are from the Bevan family collection.
Robert Bevan refused to conform to family tradition and follow his elder brothers into the bank. Instead he became an artist, spending some time as a member of the Gauguin circle at Pont-Aven in Brittany and subsequently becoming a founder member of the Camden Town Group.
Horses were always a favourite subject, and London cabyard and horse sale scenes are in Brighton Museum, the Tate Gallery, Southampton Art Gallery, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and other public collections.
The final painting is one of a set of 4 Horsgate landscapes published by Cuckfield Museum as postcards.
See 'From Cuckfield to Camden Town, the story of artist Robert Bevan' by Frances Stenlake, published by Cuckfield Museum 1999, £7.00 + p&p