Robert Polhill Bevan (1865-1925)

Study for Cotty's, 1916
stamped monogram (lower right); inscribed 54 beneath the mount
charcoal
29 x 25cm

Exhibited:
London, Goupil Gallery, Robert Bevan Memorial Exhibition, February 1926, cat. no.4

Rendered in monochrome pencil, the present study serves as a preparatory sketch for Bevan’s 1916 oil painting of the same title. In some ways, this work is the inverse of what we might expect from a preliminary drawing: it emphasises texture, tonal variation, and structural detail, particularly evident in the thatched roof and dense surrounding foliage. In contrast to the final painting, which is characterised by flat planes of red, green, and blue, the drawing prioritises accurate representation of form, light, and composition and functions as a tool for planning, favouring precision over the abstraction that defines the finished work.

Considered together, the two pieces chart Bevan’s transition from careful observation to Modernist stylisation and reveal his method of translating natural complexity into simplified, geometric forms, uniting traditional draughtsmanship with an increasingly abstract visual language.