Frederick Cayley Robinson (18 August 1862 – 4 January 1927) was an English artist who created paintings and applied art, including book illustrations and theatre set designs. Cayley Robinson continued to paint striking Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian subjects well into the twentieth century despite this approach becoming deeply unfashionable. His series of large-scale mural paintings for the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

entitled ''Acts of Mercy'' commissioned around 1915 and completed in 1920 are some of his most impressive works, along with ''Pastoral'', 1923, (

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, London), which was bought by the

Chantrey Bequest Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...

for the nation. However his many smaller paintings, particularly of interiors featuring sombre women as well as the theme of departure, are significant works of modern British art.

Biography

Born on 18 August 1862, in Brentford-on-Thames, Middlesex, Frederick Cayley Robinson was the son of an engineer. He studied at the St. John's Wood Art School, London, and from 1885 to 1888 at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

. Early on, Cayley Robinson painted scenes of the sea in the fashionable

Newlyn Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' Newlyn lies on the shore of Moun ...

style, and from 1889 to 1891 he sailed in a boat around Britain. When he returned, Cayley Robinson studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1891-1894. The artist's time studying at the académie had a critical influence on his entire artistic output, which displays the influence of European

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sym ...

, especially the avant-garde group the

Nabis Nabis ( grc-gre, Νάβις) was the last king of independent Sparta. He was probably a member of the Heracleidae, and he ruled from 207 BC to 192 BC, during the years of the First and Second Macedonian Wars and the eponymous " War against Nab ...

and the revival of interest in

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

in Paris at this time. Like many of his peers, Cayley Robinson felt drawn to a new style of art, moving away from modern

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and appearing to emulate the visionary medievalism of the Pre-Raphaelites. Various connections - for example with the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...

, and within the circle of

Charles Ricketts Charles de Sousy Ricketts (2 October 1866 – 7 October 1931) was a British artist, illustrator, author and printer, known for his work as a book designer and typographer and for his costume and scenery designs for plays and operas. Ricketts ...

and Charles Shannon - brought Cayley Robinson closer to the occult revival of the period, including the Golden Dawn and

esotericism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

. This context also infused his artworks. From the late 1890s, Cayley Robinson developed his own distinctive oeuvre of artistic expression which combined simple, quiet domesticity – the everyday - with hints of the occult, the mysterious, and the wondrous. Cayley Robinson married the painter Winifred Lucy Dalley in 1898 and they had one daughter. From 1898 to 1901, like many artists of the period, Cayley Robinson visited Florence and during that time studied the Old Masters and techniques such as

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

. In 1904, he became a founder member of the Society of Painters in Tempera. This brought him in contact with a number of other like-minded artists, notably

Mary Sargant Florence Emma Mary Sargant Florence (21 July 1857 – 14 December 1954) was a British painter of figure painting, figure subjects, mural decorations in fresco and occasional landscapes in watercolour and pastel. Biography Emma Mary Sargant was born in ...

and Lady Christiana Herringham, both of whom were involved with the suffrage movement. A central theme of Cayley Robinson’s paintings was enchantment. He produced very popular illustrations and set designs for the Haymarket Theatre production in London of

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

's '' The Blue Bird'' in 1910. In the period 1907-1914, Cayley Robinson was connected with the London based Art Theosophical Circle, a group which sought forms of artistic enchantment in the modern world. The artist contributed illustrations for their published journal ''Orpheus''. In 1914, Cayley Robinson moved with his family into 1 Lansdowne House, Lansdowne Road, Kensington, London. This was a custom-built studio apartment block inhabited solely by artists. In the same year, the artist took up his only teaching professorship, at the Glasgow School of Art, which he held for ten years. Frederick Cayley Robinson died of influenza on 4 January 1927 in a nursing home at 1 Ladbroke Square, Kensington; he was survived by his wife.

Exhibitions

During his lifetime, Cayley Robinson regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Painters and held several important solo shows. Whilst neglected for much of the twentieth century, there has been an increase in the exhibition of Cayley Robinson's work in the twenty-first century: 2006-7: ''Chasing Happiness'' at the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, Cambridge, which displayed his illustrations for

's '' The Blue Bird'' 2010: the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

displayed six works by Cayley Robinson including the four panels of the ''Acts of Mercy'' mural series, which had been rescued and purchased by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

in 2007 2022-23: Many of Cayley Robinson’s artworks featured in the exhibition ''Modern Pre-Raphaelite Visionaries: British Art, 1880-1930'' at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery, 13th May - 18th September 2022 and the

Watts Gallery Watts Gallery – Artists' Village is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of the Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts. The gallery has been Grade II* listed o ...

, Compton from October 2022- February 2023). A publication entitled ''Modern Pre-Raphaelite Visionaries: British Art, 1880-1930'' was produced to coincide with the exhibition.

Gallery

The Foundling 1896.jpg, ''The Foundling'', 1896, Leamington Spa Art Gallery The-blue-bird-dreamships.jpg, ''The Blue Bird Dreamships'', 1900, Leamington Spa Art Gallery Robinson picnic.jpg, ''Men, women, and children at a picnic in the park'' (detail), 1900 The-call-of-the-sea-frederick-cayley-robinson.jpg, ''The Call of the Sea'', c. 1900 FR Robinson.jpg, ''A Winter Evening'', c. 1900 FC Robinson3.jpg, ''The South Wind'', 1903 Oil Painting by Cayley Robinson Wellcome L0051546.jpg, ''Orphan girls entering the refectory of a hospital'', 1915,

Wellcome Collection Wellcome Collection is a museum and library based at 183 Euston Road, London, displaying a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring "ideas about the connections between medicine, life and art". Founded in 2007, the Wellcome C ...

Painting by Cayley Robinson Wellcome L0051541.jpg, ''Orphan girls in the refectory of a hospital, proceeding to their place at the table'', c. 1915,

The doctor Wellcome L0067101.jpg, ''The doctor'', 1916,

Cayley Robinson painting Wellcome L0051536.jpg, ''Wounded and sick men gathered outside a hospital'', 1920,

Frederick Cayley Robinson - The Word.jpg, ''The Word'', c. 1922 Tyltyl turns the Diamond, Frederick Cayley Robinson illustration from The Blue.jpg, ''Tyltyl Turns the Diamond'', illustration from ''The Blue Bird'', by Maurice Maeterlinck (48th ed. 1923) Frederick Cayley Robinson, The Youth, 1923, private collection.jpg, ''Youth'', 1923, private collection British industries.jpg, ''British Industries'', 1923,

Pinacoteca Nazionale (Siena) The Pinacoteca Nazionale is a national museum in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Inaugurated in 1932, it houses especially late medieval and Renaissance paintings from Italian artists. It is housed in the Brigidi and Buonsignori palaces in the city's center ...

Frédéric Cayley Robnson,1862-1927, Pastorale, Tate Britain..jpg, ''Pastoral'', 1923-24,

External links

*
National Gallery exhibition 2010

Review of the 2010 Tate exhibition
''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''
Review of the 2010 Tate exhibition
''The Guardian''
Slideshow of the 'Acts of Mercy'
''The Guardian''
Wellcome Collection Library Catalogue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Frederick Cayley 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Modern painters 1927 deaths 1862 births Deaths from influenza People from Brentford Associates of the Royal Academy Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists

Biography

Exhibitions

Further reading

Gallery

External links