My mother's real name is Celia. When we were kids we would all put on Simon and Art Garfunkal and sing Cecilia.
Robert was fond of nicknames. He nicknamed Celia, 'Mouse'. This was because someone once laughed at them and said that she looked like a Mouse beside him. The name stuck and I can't believe the amount of times I have seen faces look confused when they ask her her name and she replies, "Mouse". Usually it has to be repeated twice and then finally the penny drops. Yes, this woman really is named after the little creature who eats cheese.
The painting depicted here above is an early still life by Robert. It was on my Grandmother's wall when I was a child. Robert had given this one as a present to my grandmother, (my mother's mother) including another one (which somehow transported itself back to Robert's studio...) years later. We don't know how it got there but most likely someone who took a chance when we weren't looking. The other still life painting was its accidental partner as they just happened to share the same wall at my Grandmothers in Cornwall. It was a blue still life depicting a blue cup on a table covered with a piece of tapestry, beautifully painted. I get the impression, Robert was influenced by Cezanne with that painting. He loved Cezanne and admired his use of form and colour but with this painting above there is a feeling of Dutch or French still life, in the tones, colours and overall mood, Courbet or Chardin perhaps. Robert admired Courbet and the Realism movement. He used to show me books of Courbet's paintings, particularly the still lives and his favourite painting, 'The Artist's Studio'. Again, Courbet was an artist interested in painting ordinary people and ordinary lives.
I enjoyed Robert's early paintings.There was something very gentle and almost mystical about them, partilculary the landscapes he would paint with watercolours using very soft tones and wonderful colour combinations, usually very subdued.
Robert taught me about artists and their work. We would go for coffee on the Barbican and he would take out a book on art and talk about the paintings with me. My earliest memory of him talking about art must have been the work of the Flemish painter, Pieter Bruegel. Robert was particularly fascinated by the painting, 'The Adoration of the Kings,'. He admired Bruegel because of the artist's fascination with real life.. Like Bruegel, Robert was fascinated by people's flaws, troubles and suffering. Bruegel was very much this kind of painter. Robert loved the foolery in these paintings and the satire, 'The Land of Cockayne'. 'The Falling of Icarus' for instance depicts the world continuing about its business while Icarus falls in the sea and of course no one sees him. Then there are the more sublime paintings by Bruegel, 'The Parable of the Blind' and 'The Triumph of Death'.Robert was influenced by Bruegel and I feel this painter was significant throughout his work during his lifetime. You will see it in his education project and in the addictive behaviour projects where his influences are similar to Bruegel in the idea of people's interest in money, sexuality and vanity.
