In 1962, Robert's life changed. Robert had produced a large amount of work. Robert gained a place at the Royal Academy. Mouse was still at St Martins as she was two years below him. Life continued much the same for a while as they lived together happily in London in Eton Avenue.
There have been many stories that have revolved around this period in Robert's life but the main one is always that Robert's work was somehow viewed sceptically or that he was not appreciated. Robert has often been seen as an artist who was steeped in the past. However, I feel this was nothing unusual. Many of the artists who were Robert's contemporaries during this time and who circulated the Academy and St Martins had also gained inspiration from the past and were using it to inform their work so Robert wasn't particularly unique in this area. At the same time he would have been very aware and interested in new concepts of art. He always was.
Robert may have had his own style but he certainly wasn't anti innovation. He was absorbed with art throughout his whole life and his library contained numerous books on art including 1960s artists, many of them whose art Robert admired, for instance, David Hockney who was there at the Academy at the same time. I remember Robert showing me work by Howard Hodgkin and Ken Kiff. He was fascinated by Carl Andre and later Anthony Gormley, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Certain works moved him more than others which is only natural but innovation in art held a strong interest for him. Stagnancy was not part of Robert's character. However, in terms of his 'tools' he was fundamentally into oil paint, canvas and watercolour.
I feel Robert was always primarily a painter of social issues and there were certain artists he always had a closer affinity with. Contemporary life was what Robert was interested in and the issues that consume a person's day to day life. This could be sexuality or education. The portraits he painted are there as examples of his interest in specific issues and human behaviour. However, a great deal of his time went into meeting these people and learning about his subject before he painted which sometimes I feel is overlooked.
He became very involved with his subject.
Robert was also a lover of landscape. I remember him showing me pictures of Constable's Clouds when I was a little girl. He also loved Turner's seascapes. Robert was particlularly fond of the sea. One of his favourite paintings was the Raft of Medusa by Gericault.I remember Robert being fascinated by the composition of the painting and the overall suffering and desperation that dominted the painting partilcularly as it was based upon a true story.
Maritime themes formed a significant part of Robert's world and he later extended his enthusiasm for this theme when he lived in Plymouth, observing the fishermen and exploring issues of human behaviour and work carried out locally in his paintings and his exhibitions. I remember Robert was particularly fond of the painter, Stanhope Forbes of the Newlyn School. His painting, The Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach (1885; Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery) was one of Robert's favourite paintings in Plymouth.
Robert's art encompassed more than just the work he produced. His life was very much part of his art and I feel he saw his life and his art as intertwined. His personal style was individual and known for being eccentric but in the end attitudes from the public tended to range between admiration, shock, intrigue and at times disbelief.
