William Palmer Robins

Born in Southwark, England on July 21st.1882 , William P. Robins grew up in a busy home with seven siblings. Encouraged by his father, William Benjamin Robins, an art teacher and a naturalist, father and son would stroll the countryside sketching together. William's mother Annie was a schoolteacher. William Palmer Robins would create more than 270 etchings, woodcuts, lithographs, drawings, mezzotints, dry~points, aquatints, watercolours and oil paintings in the course of his 77 years. His training for two years in an architectural firm owned by Professor Banister Fletcher provided invaluable experience in the making of architectural drawings and traced plans. At the same time, William was attending the lectures of Professor Fletcher. In 1899 he won the Carpenter Company's Silver Medal for The History of Architecture. Choosing not to pursue architecture as a profession, he moved on to St. Martins School of Art and eventually became an instructor. He was there for 20 years. In 1909 under the guidance of W. Lee Hankey at New Cross, W. P. Robins created his first copper plates: The Pool, The Hayfield and Pevensey Beach as etchings, with aquatint tones added later. The next three were Peace and Stillness, Moonrise, and Evening, done as pure aquatints. He learned his craft as an etcher under Sir Frank Short at the Royal College of Art. In 1913 he became an associate and in 1917 a full member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers. In 1911 he won the Silver medal of the National Competition for the History of Architecture. He was a most exacting artist: if a plate did not meet his critical eye, he would destroy it. He himself estimated that twice as many plates as he published were destroyed. He was considered a highly skilled member of the picturesque landscape tradition which is reminiscent of the work of Rembrandt.