Born in Northern Ireland as Maria Dorothea Webb, the artist then migrated to Dublin. She studied art at Julian's Academy in Paris, and made her debut (1883) at the Paris Salon with A Breton Farm that she painted in Pont Aven. Exhibited from 1881-1910, and her first entry at the RA in 1885, was A Pool in the Rocks.
She was married to Henry Harewood ROBINSON. In the 1891 Census, Maria D and her husband Henry H were recorded as living at Richmond Place, St Ives. Both exhibited at the Opening Exhibition of the Gallery at Newlyn (1895). In 1901 she exhibited and sold Peacocks Feathers at NAG. The artist couple lived at 99 Richmond Place, St Ives. She was made an honorary member of the St Ives Arts Club after her husband's death. M D Harewood ROBINSON is one of the signatories of the Glanville Letter.
The Probate Office gives her full name as: Maria Dorothea Harewood ROBINSON. According to David Tovey, she signed her letters as Dorothy.She died in York, on 3 July 1920, age 80 (General Register Office, as ROBINSON, Maria D H).
The artist was born in Croydon, Surrey, into the comfortable home of stockbroker John Lambert Dalley and his wife Mary. She had two younger siblings, and the family was looked after by four servants. Before her marriage and while still a pupil at the Kensington School of Art, she exhibited her paintings as Winifred Dalley. The wife of the artist Frederick Cayley ROBINSON, she was also an extremely accomplished illustrator. The couple married in December of 1898 in Bradford on Avon, Somerset.
Her known illustrated works on Cornish subjects are The Children's Book of Gardening (12 Full-page illustrations in colour from drawings) authored by her friends Mrs Alfred Sidgwick (Cecily SIDGWICK) and Mrs Paynter, and Loveday Hambly and her Friends, by L V Hodgkins. In the former book, the dedication is made to three children: Betty (Paynter), Barbara (Cayley-Robinson) and Cyril (a nephew of the novelist Mrs Sidgwick, who had no children of her own) - all of St Buryan and Lamorna. About Barbara is written, 'she is a traveller, and can have no garden of her own; but she sets daffodils in her friends' gardens, and is content to see them, with her inward eye, dancing in the breeze for their delight.'
The reference to travel is apt, for the Cayley-Robinsons lived in London, travelled frequently to Cornwall, and one of Frederick's posts was a Professorship at the Glasgow Institute. She survived her husband and died, age 72 in their Kensington home.
Works by this artist are included in the art collection of University College Falmouth (UCF).
An artist who specialised in the 'book arts', Robinson was a brother of the cartoonist W Heath Robinson, so well known for his depiction of the complicated apparatus to perform the simple task. This Robinson was an illustrator of religious and non-fiction historical texts, and for journals and magazines.In the 1950s he exhibited from the Piazza Studios.
Thomas came to St Ives during WWII and remained until the end of his life, maintaining a studio to work on religious paintings, certificates (honorial) and bookplates. A painting of St Michael (oil on canvas 70 x 40.5) is part of the art collection at St Michael's Hospital, Hayle.
The work of this artist is regularly exhibited at the Lander Gallery, Truro (2011).
Intense emotion is the source of Sally Robinson's creative output, which finds expression in vibrant acetate installations. Experimenting with a variety of media, she articulates the relationship between the two- and three-dimensional.
Mimi Robson is a printmaker who graduated from Falmouth University in 2003 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. Since then, she has worked alongside printmaker John HOWARD. Her love for the ocean is reflected in her etchings and monoprints. Her work has been exhibited at Beside the Wave in Falmouth.
Morn Robson recently returned to her roots in south-east Cornwall after many years in Yorkshire. She lives near Liskeard.
Jan Robson is a marine artist who lives in Mylor. In 1998 she turned away from her professional sailing career to focus on painting and illustration work.
She has carried out commissions for clients including the RNLI. She also conducts classes in drawing and watercolour.
Listed as a pupil of the FORBES SCHOOL at non-specified date.
Hypatia Rodocanachi was a sculptor, medallist and painter. She was born in Paddington, London, to John (Theodore) Rodocanachi, a merchant, and Fanny (Ambrouzis) Mavrogordato. Hypatia began studying painting around 1891 and later studied sculpture, probably at the Royal College of Art. She is understood to have studied under Edouard Lanteri and George James Frampton.
In the last decades of her life she lived in Trelights, a village in the parish of St Endellion, Cornwall. In the 1930s the parish church was undergoing major internal restoration and she designed and carved some of the new pew ends and also contributed a relief entitled 'Joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth', which was mounted on the west wall of the south aisle. It is not known if this was a new piece created specifically for St Endellion or one she had made earlier. These are probably amongst her last works. Hypatia died in Cornwall and was buried in the family grave in the Greek Orthodox section of West Norwood Cemetery.
This record includes information submitted by Jocelyn Bailey.
Exhibited a Newlyn title at the West Cornwall Art Union: National Art Library exhibition, January 1884. In its report on the exhibition, The Cornish Telegraph described her work as 'pretty'.
The artist trained at the RA Schools, and has lived and worked in Boscastle, Cornwall since 1986.
His work has been exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and the Royal Society of British Artists, and in Cornwall at date (2010) is exhibited in the Waterside Gallery, St Ives and on-line at www.watersidestives.com.
The artist exhibited and sold Evening at NAG in 1901. C Wood notes this artist as being from Thame, Oxfordshire in 1872, and exhibiting a painting of fruit in that year.
J&G identify this artist as Mrs M J Robers [sic], exhibiting in 1901 at the Dudley Gallery (London) and the RI, from The Vicarage, Pendeen, Cornwall.
Although Bob Rogers has retired from academic life as a university lecturer specialising in three-dimensional artwork, he continues to sculpt at his home in Falmouth, and his small figures attract a great deal of attention and admiration.
Tanya Rogers is a Cornwall based mixed media artist who creates beautiful and unusual landscapes through a process of felting and stitching.
In 2023 she joined Prime Women Artists, a supportive and creative network for women artists of all disciplines in Cornwall.
One of the Birmingham Art Circle revealed due to the recent research of Roger Langley to extend our knowledge of the artists who without doubt came to Cornwall to paint en plein air, but did not (to our present knowledge) actually exhibit their work in Cornwall. It therefore takes study of the exhibition lists and catalogues in places far afield to discover some of the works related to us.
Rollason was born in Birmingham, the son of Mark Rollason, brassfounder, and his wife Eleanor. He was a painter of rural scenery and storytelling pictures who exhibited Cornish-related work at the RBS and in the Art Circle exhibitions in some quantity. He did not come to Cornwall initially until about 1889 but continued to show Cornish subjects until 1898, probably indicating that he made a number of visits. In all Langley has identified 31 titles that were exhibited, though no illustrations have yet been traced.
By 1901 he appears to have moved to Cornwall to work as an art master in Truro. He and his wife Frances Alice, had one daughter, and lived in the Kenwyn area.
Born in Clapham, Surrey, the artist was educated first at Westminster School, before studying art and illustration at the Lambeth Art School. Later he was to attend Julian's Academy in Paris (1888-90) and to meet there other artists who also arrived in Cornwall around 1890. Walter JEVONS and Lamorna BIRCH were two of these.
Tovey mentions Roller as one of the pioneers of St Ives Art (1889-1914) but it is not clear how long he remained in St Ives, after he became a founding member of the St Ives Arts Club. His sending in and working addresses throughout his life were in London and Tadley, Berkshire. He married first in 1887 to Mary Margaret Halliday with whom he had two children, and secondly, after May's death in 1908, to Emily Kirk Craig.
A long-time friend of John Singer Sargent, he and his family were painted by the American artist (see jss gallery on-line for a portrait of Roller). A number of St Ives artists were part of Sargent's travelling circle, and met up from time to time as they moved around the colonies in England and abroad.
Roller was associated with the Burberry Company for more than 30 years, both as a friend of the family and as the primary illustrator of their sports attire and equipment. His work was featured in many national magazines, wherever Burberry advertised. He and Thomas Burberry had become acquainted through their mutual interest in horses, and both equestrian and sports settings were to feature largely in his painting. He also restored paintings for the RA at Burlington House, and for other museums in UK and abroad.
His military career gave him both prominence and many leadership roles. He fought in both the Boer War in South Africa, and in WWI in London and in France. He was a governor of several London hospitals, and until his death from 1928, an Honorary Life Governor of the Royal Berkshire Hospital. In later life he continued to restore paintings, and he died while visiting in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
A distinguished painter of portraits, who painted a distinguished Cornishman among many others, in the person of George Evelyn Boscawen, 3rd Viscount Falmouth (1758-1808) in 1784. The portrait is in the collection of the Falmouth Art Gallery.
Janine Rook trained in Fine Art at St Martins and the Slade Schools of Art, London. In 2011 she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Her work employs found materials and images alongside drawing and photography.
Bryan Rooksby was born in Hendon, London, the son of bank worker, Harry P Rooksby and his wife Dorothy Pugh. During WWII he was evacuated to the Redruth-Camborne district, and afterwards, returning to London, he studied at the Willesden School of Art (c1948-52).
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s he worked as a commercial artist for several studios in the City of London, including such as Blue Circle. He developed an interest in photography and published some of his own in magazines such as Amateur Photographer and Photo News Weekly. He was a runner-up in several photographer-of-the-year competitions.
In 1972 he and his wife, Dallas, set up the Bryandal Guest House in Ocean View Terrace, in St Ives, with the idea of starting a new life. As a side-line he worked as a signwriter in Penwith and his painting receded to the status of experimental and spare time hobby, which he did not exhibit to the public. The guest house closed in 1976 and sold in 1977 with all contents, perhaps including a number of his pictures which may have been bought by local people. He left Cornwall in the late 1970s and died in Southend, Essex in 2017.
His eldest son Rikky Rooksby (1958-) is a published author and composer, some of whose music is inspired by Cornwall and Cornish art. In 2010 his orchestral piece, 'Scenes from the Life of Sir Humphry Davy' was performed in Penzance to mark the centenary of the Humphry Davy School.