Robert Polhill Bevan 1865-1925, his paintings of the Blackdown Hills and Luppitt..

Robert Bevan was born on 5 August 1865 in West Sussex. He went to school in Hove, and left in 1883 to attend the Westminster Art School. In 1894, Bevan met Paul Gaugin in Pont Aven, Brittany.

In 1911, Bevan joined the Fitzroy group of artists, later known as The Camden Town Group. He painted with Charles Ginner and Spencer Gore on trips to the Blackdown Hills.

From about 1910 onwards, Harold B Harrison invited artists that he admired to stay at his farmhouse, Applehayes, in the village of Clayhidon in the Blackdown Hills. He had studios erected for these visitors including Charles Ginner, Frederick Spencer Gore and Robert Polhill Bevan.

Bevan painted many landscapes around the farm, particularly the Rosemary canvases of 1915-16. He spent the summers of 1912,1913 and 1915 at Applehayes. Inspired by the post impressionist exhibition of 1912, he reduced the Blackdown Hills to geometric shapes.

In 1916, Bevan took a cottage of his own in the Bolham Valley near Clayhidon and in early 1920, he moved to Marlpitts Cottage, Luppitt.

The gallery of images show many of his paintings of the Blackdown hills and Luppitt painted between 1912 – 1925.