Robert Polhill Bevan (British, 1865-1925)


The Smithy at Czeliewy stamped with studio stamp (lower left)watercolour and chalk14.5 x 20.5cm (5 11/16 x 8 1/16in).Executed circa 1897with a further partial chalk drawing by the same hand, to the reverse
|ProvenanceSale; Sotheby's, London, 7 March 1990, lot 135 (as Polish Cottage)With Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, LondonSale; Christie's, South Kensington, 24 October 2007, lot 90Private Collection, U.K.ExhibitedLondon, Anthony D'Offay, Robert Bevan Drawings and Watercolours, 31 January-10 March 1967, cat.no.8Robert Bevan met the Polish art student Stanislawa de Karlowska in the summer of 1897 at a friend's wedding, and although the couple could only communicate in their common language of French, it was purportedly love at first sight. After a matter of months, they were married in December 1897 in Warsaw and the present work is thought to possibly have been executed during this same trip to Poland, as de Karlowska's father lived at Czeliewy.