Description

A dynamic and bold nude study in charcoal showing a woman seated on a bench, slouched over with hands hanging elegantly in front of her. The artist has signed to the lower right and the drawing has been presented in a two tone grey wood frame. There is a label at the reverse with the date and an inscription indicating this artwork was exhibited in 1982 at the artist's solo exhibition. On wove.

Condition

The condition is typical for a picture of this age including some discolouration and light smudging across the surface. The frame is in fine condition.

Biography

After the Slade, Robbins combined making his own art with a career in teaching, first at Belmont, then at Camberwell College of Arts and finally at the Hornsey College of Art (subsequently Middlesex Polytechnic then Middlesex University). He spent 33 years at Hornsey and its successors, becoming Head of Painting in 1984 and Head of Fine Art in 1990. He retired in 1993, at which point he was made Professor Emeritus.
Robbins was a prolific painter and sculptor, both very interested in human form and in nature, particularly the Hampstead Ponds and Lyme Regis. The London School of Economics and the University of Stirling each hold bronzes of Robbins's bust of his father, who was respectively Professor of Economics and the first Chancellor. There is a self-portrait (1960) in the Ruth Borchard collection of self-portraits. Works are also held by New College, Oxford, University of Stirling, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, Lyme Regis Museum, the University of Middlesex, and the Whittington Hospital.

In 2004 he was made a Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists. The Open College of the Arts (the distance-learning partner of the University for the Creative Arts) launched a Richard Robbins Award in his memory in 2011.