Robert Brough RA ARSA (British, 1872-1905) A portrait study of a young lady, with ribbon in her hair, head and shoulders signed and dated 'Robert Brough/91' (lower right), faint initials and date (lower right of sitter), indistinctly inscribed '--- --- Study' (lower left) pencil and chalk drawing on grey paper 60 x 41cm (23 5/8 x 16 1/8in).
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) THREE-QUARTER LENGTH PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST JOHN RUSSELL GREIG IN HIS STUDIO Oil on canvas laid down on board 122cm x 81cm (48in x 32in) The collection of the sitter, John Russell Greig Note: John Russell Greig (1870-1963), a close friend and executor of Brough's estate, organised memorial exhibitions in Aberdeen and London. Brough's estate was left to Greig's daughter and several of his finest paintings passed on to her.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) STUDY OF A BEGGAR Signed and inscribed ‘to my friend Mann’, further inscribed verso ‘Sketch for beggar in Anne of Brittany picture bought by Italian Government, Venice’, oil on canvas 61cm x 46cm (24in x 18in) St. Anne of Brittany was painted in 1896 and exhibited in Munich in the same year, where it was purchased by the Italian Government for the Modern Art Gallery in Venice. (Sant'Anna di Brettagna, International Museum of Modern Art, Ca' Pesaro, Venice)
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) THREE-QUARTER LENGTH PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST JOHN RUSSELL GREIG IN HIS STUDIO Oil on canvas laid down on board 122cm x 81cm (48in x 32in) The collection of the sitter, John Russell Greig John Russell Greig (1870-1963), a close friend and executor of Brough's estate, organised memorial exhibitions in Aberdeen and London. Brough's estate was left to Greig's daughter and several of his finest paintings passed on to her.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) BRETON WOMEN SITTING ON A BEACH Oil on canvas laid down on board (46cm x 61cm (18in x 24in)) Provenance: Bequeathed by the Artist to John Russell Greig His Studio sale 1905 (no.76) as 'Brittany Peasants', where acquired by Dr. Norah Wattie, Glasgow Exhibited: Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Robert Brough ARSA, 18 February-25 March 1995, no. 38, illustrated in colour on back cover In the catalogue for the 1995 Aberdeen Art Gallery exhibition, Jennifer Melville stated: 'In Breton Women Sitting on a Beach Brough sets the silhouettes created by such local costumes against a glowing pink sand - coming as close to Gauguin's flat patterns as in any work.' Note: In around 1900 a young Aberdonian artist named Robert Brough arrived in London. A rising star whose recent paintings had prompted a media frenzy, Brough felt compelled to relocate to the English capital to further develop his artistic career. Chelsea was the beating heart of London’s art world; accordingly, Brough took a lease at Rossetti Studios in Flood Street. Despite his youth, Brough already had the experience and credentials to mark him as an artist of consequence. He had trained in Paris at the Académie Julian, where in 1894 he shared lodgings with the Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe (1871-1935), and following this spent a period working in Brittany, inspired by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). He was charmed by the traditional way of life of the Breton people, and by the distinctive quality of light and vivid colouring of the landscape. Both Gauguin and Brough assimilated the tenets of the Synthesist movement, a painting style which prioritised the use of flat planes of harmonious colour and of rhythmic, pattern-inflected composition over more naturalistic representation. Brough’s Brittany work firmly acknowledges Syntheticism but is tempered by an observational grounding, owing to his fascination with the Breton peoples’ lives and customs. His paintings from this period constitute a sensitive record of a traditional people, rendered with an innovatively modern, almost post-Impressionist eye. Jennifer Melville observed that ‘In Breton Women Sitting on a Beach Brough sets the silhouettes created by [the] local costumes against a glowing pink sand - coming as close to Gauguin’s flat patterns as in any work’. (Jennifer Melville, Robert Brough, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1995, p.21) Upon returning to Aberdeen in 1894, Brough began to earn a living as a portrait artist. He soon attracted commissions from notable families in the area, particularly those involved with the arts. His style retained the compositional brilliance of his earlier work, but his technique became increasingly dynamic and ‘sweeping’ owing to his confident application of licks of oil pigment. Sweet Violets dates to 1897, when Brough was establishing himself as an accomplished society portraitist, and is one of the artist’s masterpieces. His characteristically flamboyant brushwork delineates the elegant profile and fashionable attire of his subject, Barbara Staples, whom Brough had secured permission to paint after a meeting in Aberdeen. Affixed under Staples’ spectacular hat is a delicate patterned veil, through which her pink lips and cheeks are visible. She holds aloft a jar of violets, with their purple hues reflected at her throat and cuffs, inviting comparison between the beauty of the sitter and the flowers she holds. Sweet Violets and a companion painting titled Fantaisie en Folie (now in the Tate collection) implement a similar palette and portray their sitter in profile against a plain background, which Thomas Cooper suggests may have been informed by John Singer Sargent’s Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (1882-1883). (Thomas Cooper, ‘A Monstrous Imagining of Matter and Spirit: Robert Brough’s Fantaisie en Folie (1897)’, Immediations, Courtauld Institute of Art on-line journal, vol.4, no.3, 2018, accessed 10 May 2023) Brough’s companion portraits were exhibited widely to exceptional acclaim, rendering the young artist something of a critical phenomenon. Sweet Violets was acquired by Alexander Ogsten and hung in his home at Ardoe House, Aberdeen, for many years. So enamoured was Ogsten with the painting that he declined the many offers he received for it - including those made by Barbara Staples’ husband. Eventually the portrait was exhibited in a Munich gallery in 1960, where Staples’ family were able to purchase the picture and return it to the family. They, in turn, refused to accept any offer that was made for it, and for a long time it remained a family treasure. In the 1990s an article appeared in Country Life magazine searching for Brough’s lost masterpiece, and the Staples family responded explaining that the portrait was in their collection, and that the sitter was their grandmother. In 1995 Sweet Violets was included in Aberdeen Art Gallery’s Brough exhibition, after which it was loaned to, and ultimately purchased by, the present vendor. The success of Sweet Violets and Fantaisie en Folie encouraged Robert Brough to move to London. He promptly joined the Chelsea Arts Club, where he met Sargent, one of his artistic heroes. The pair became close friends, developing a mentor-protégé relationship and taking nearby Chelsea studios. Thanks in part to Sargent’s support, Brough’s painting career flourished year upon year. Young, ambitious, and precociously talented, Brough was on an impressive professional trajectory, yet was unable to reach the soaring heights for which he appeared to be destined on account of a tragic accident. On 20th January 1905 Brough was travelling by train from Perth to London when a major crash occurred. He suffered serious burns and died the following day, with his mother and Singer Sargent at his bedside. His life, and extraordinary potential, was thus curtailed. Throughout his life Brough was successful and well-known; his obituary recorded that he combined ‘the dash of Sargent and the beautiful refinement of Velazquez.’ (The artist W. G. Robb quoted in an obituary in a Scottish newspaper, 1905) Despite this, his early death appears initially to have prevented him from being fully admitted to the canon of great painters in the history of Scottish art. This is largely due to the brevity of his career: relatively few artworks survive and he had less time than most to crystallise his artistic legacy. Fortunately, recent reviews of Scottish painting have done much to reinstate Brough’s status as a painter of remarkable quality, who worked at the forefront of innovative artistic movements, both in Britain and in France. Robert Brough’s artworks appear on the market infrequently, and Lyon & Turnbull is therefore particularly delighted to be offering two tour-de-force oils, both of exceptional importance and each dating to key moments in his career.
◆ ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) SWEET VIOLETS Oil on canvas (68.5cm x 104cm (27in x 41in)) Provenance: Alexander Ogston, ArdoeAcquired from the above by the sitters's husband and thence by family descentPrivate Collection, Scotland Exhibited: Royal Glasgow Institute, Glasgow, 1897, no.149 Aberdeen Artists Society, Aberdeen, 1906, no.488 Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1907, no.43 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1926, no.335 Palace of Arts, Empire Exhibition, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, 3 May - 29 October 1938, no.59 Palace of Arts, Empire Exhibition, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, 3 May - 29 October 1938, no.59 Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Robert Brough ARSA, 18 February-25 March 1995, no.63, pp.50-51. Note: In around 1900 a young Aberdonian artist named Robert Brough arrived in London. A rising star whose recent paintings had prompted a media frenzy, Brough felt compelled to relocate to the English capital to further develop his artistic career. Chelsea was the beating heart of London’s art world; accordingly, Brough took a lease at Rossetti Studios in Flood Street. Despite his youth, Brough already had the experience and credentials to mark him as an artist of consequence. He had trained in Paris at the Académie Julian, where in 1894 he shared lodgings with the Scottish Colourist S. J. Peploe (1871-1935), and following this spent a period working in Brittany, inspired by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). He was charmed by the traditional way of life of the Breton people, and by the distinctive quality of light and vivid colouring of the landscape. Both Gauguin and Brough assimilated the tenets of the Synthesist movement, a painting style which prioritised the use of flat planes of harmonious colour and of rhythmic, pattern-inflected composition over more naturalistic representation. Brough’s Brittany work firmly acknowledges Syntheticism but is tempered by an observational grounding, owing to his fascination with the Breton peoples’ lives and customs. His paintings from this period constitute a sensitive record of a traditional people, rendered with an innovatively modern, almost post-Impressionist eye. Jennifer Melville observed that ‘In Breton Women Sitting on a Beach Brough sets the silhouettes created by [the] local costumes against a glowing pink sand - coming as close to Gauguin’s flat patterns as in any work’. (Jennifer Melville, Robert Brough, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1995, p.21) Upon returning to Aberdeen in 1894, Brough began to earn a living as a portrait artist. He soon attracted commissions from notable families in the area, particularly those involved with the arts. His style retained the compositional brilliance of his earlier work, but his technique became increasingly dynamic and ‘sweeping’ owing to his confident application of licks of oil pigment. Sweet Violets dates to 1897, when Brough was establishing himself as an accomplished society portraitist, and is one of the artist’s masterpieces. His characteristically flamboyant brushwork delineates the elegant profile and fashionable attire of his subject, Barbara Staples, whom Brough had secured permission to paint after a meeting in Aberdeen. Affixed under Staples’ spectacular hat is a delicate patterned veil, through which her pink lips and cheeks are visible. She holds aloft a jar of violets, with their purple hues reflected at her throat and cuffs, inviting comparison between the beauty of the sitter and the flowers she holds. Sweet Violets and a companion painting titled Fantaisie en Folie (now in the Tate collection) implement a similar palette and portray their sitter in profile against a plain background, which Thomas Cooper suggests may have been informed by John Singer Sargent’s Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (1882-1883). (Thomas Cooper, ‘A Monstrous Imagining of Matter and Spirit: Robert Brough’s Fantaisie en Folie (1897)’, Immediations, Courtauld Institute of Art on-line journal, vol.4, no.3, 2018, accessed 10 May 2023) Brough’s companion portraits were exhibited widely to exceptional acclaim, rendering the young artist something of a critical phenomenon. Sweet Violets was acquired by Alexander Ogsten and hung in his home at Ardoe House, Aberdeen, for many years. Such is its importance that it was included in the landmark Empire Exhibition mounted in Glasgow in 1938. So enamoured was Ogsten with the painting that he declined the many offers he received for it - including those made by Barbara Staples’ husband. Eventually the portrait was exhibited in a Munich gallery in 1960, where Staples’ family were able to purchase the picture and return it to the family. They, in turn, refused to accept any offer that was made for it, and for a long time it remained a family treasure. In the 1990s an article appeared in Country Life magazine searching for Brough’s lost masterpiece, and the Staples family responded explaining that the portrait was in their collection, and that the sitter was their grandmother. In 1995 Sweet Violets was included in Aberdeen Art Gallery’s Brough exhibition, after which it was loaned to, and ultimately purchased by, the present vendor. The success of Sweet Violets and Fantaisie en Folie encouraged Robert Brough to move to London. He promptly joined the Chelsea Arts Club, where he met Sargent, one of his artistic heroes. The pair became close friends, developing a mentor-protégé relationship and taking nearby Chelsea studios. Thanks in part to Sargent’s support, Brough’s painting career flourished year upon year. Young, ambitious, and precociously talented, Brough was on an impressive professional trajectory, yet was unable to reach the soaring heights for which he appeared to be destined on account of a tragic accident. On 20th January 1905 Brough was travelling by train from Perth to London when a major crash occurred. He suffered serious burns and died the following day, with his mother and Singer Sargent at his bedside. His life, and extraordinary potential, was thus curtailed. Throughout his life Brough was successful and well-known; his obituary recorded that he combined ‘the dash of Sargent and the beautiful refinement of Velazquez.’ (The artist W. G. Robb quoted in an obituary in a Scottish newspaper, 1905) Despite this, his early death appears initially to have prevented him from being fully admitted to the canon of great painters in the history of Scottish art. This is largely due to the brevity of his career: relatively few artworks survive and he had less time than most to crystallise his artistic legacy. Fortunately, recent reviews of Scottish painting have done much to reinstate Brough’s status as a painter of remarkable quality, who worked at the forefront of innovative artistic movements, both in Britain and in France. Robert Brough’s artworks appear on the market infrequently, and Lyon & Turnbull is therefore particularly delighted to be offering two tour-de-force oils, both of exceptional importance and each dating to key moments in his career.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) GIRL BY THE FIRESIDE Signed, oil on canvas (30.5cm x 41cm (12in x 16in)) Exhibited: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Robert Brough, 1995, no.65 Footnote: Note: Robert Brough’s talent and approach was beautifully summarised by his great friend and mentor, John Singer Sargent: ‘. . . the grace, the fluidity, the lightness of touch that are so delightful in Brough; that very rare quality of surface that seems to make the actual paint a precious substance.’ That is exactly what we can see in ‘Girl by the Fireside,’ a sumptuous, elegant piece of painting where the fluid and dextrous handling of the paint is a great joy in and of itself. The subject is an elegant lady wrapped still in her richly trimmed winter coat relaxing into a chair, her legs outstretched in front of the smouldering embers of the fire. This seems to be a peaceful, almost indulgent moment of relaxation yet her head tilt and direct gaze asserts her presence and acknowledges the position of artist and viewer. Brough suggest all these details with a sparsity of paint but a fluidity of brushwork, dashing across the canvas, the application thin but the effect luxurious. Brough was a precocious talent, exposed to art from an early age by neighbours including Sir George Reid. He commenced his training in the local city of Aberdeen, with an apprenticeship to a lithographer and evening classes at the newly opened Gray’s School of Art but moved down to Edinburgh to attend the Royal Scottish Academy Life School. By the end of his first year he was awarded three significant prizes, the most accomplished student of the year. Brough completed further training in Paris, enrolling at the Acadamie Julien in Paris with his great friend, the Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe, before travelling on in search of Sisley at Moret-sur-Seine and then Gauguin at Pont Aven in Brittany. By 1897, and the age of twenty-five, he was working in London alongside Sargent. Brough’s life was tragically cut short at the age of thirty-two when he suffered significant burns as the result of a train accident, Sargent hurried to be by his side at the end. The entirety of his artistic career lasted just sixteen years and in the period following his death, artistic fashions moved quite quickly away from the elegant portraiture that artists like Brough and Sargent had favoured. This may explain why an artist so lauded in his day is relatively little known now. Yet to engage with his paintings transports us back to the perception of him in life, as a formidably talented painter, confident, elegant and dashing, each work a true pleasure to behold.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) HERD GIRL Signed with initials, pastel (38cm x 38cm (15in x 15in)) Footnote: Note: Robert Broughs art is often overshadowed by the trauma and tragedy of his untimely death; after suffering horrific burns in a train collision outside of Sheffield. A great friend and protégé of Singer Sargent, the older artist rushed to be with his friend in his final days and following his death curated a memorial exhibition in celebration of the young artists talent. Broughs life was cut short during a steep upward career trajectory, he was very much a rising art star; working alongside Sargent and having recently been made an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Brough displayed a talent for both art and music from a young age, and was greatly encouraged by the familys neighbour, the painter Sir George Reid. With this support Brough found an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Aberdeen and used his earnings to fund trainings at Grays School of Art in the city, before applying to the R.S.A. Schools in Edinburgh in 1891. By the end of his first year, he had been awarded three prestigious prizes, thus beginning a notable career. Brough completed further training in Paris, enrolling at the Acadamie Julien in Paris with Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe, before travelling on in search of Sisley at Moret-sur-Seine and then Gauguin at Pont Aven in Brittany. By 1894 he had returned to his native Aberdeen and his steady progress was being closely monitored by the local press, When only three-and-twenty years of age Mr. Brough created some sensation and scored an undoubted triumph with two pictures shown at the Grafton Exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters. His reputation already extended far beyond the confines of his native land. He had important pictures in Munich, Moscow, and in other leading Continental Galleries (1895, Aberdeen Daily Journal). Then by 1897, and the age of 25, he was in London working on society portraits alongside Sargent. Close engagement with the offered works by this intriguing artist reveals his true talent and dexterity; his lightness of touch and sophistication across mediums particularly apparent. Breton Women by Street Light is an atmospheric oil sketch, as Brough depicts the transient nature of early evening, as the light starts to glow through the windows, and skilfully captures the distinctive way that the white lace coiffed headdresses of the Breton women pick up touches of this reflected light. Brough achieves this with consummate ease, the paucity and economy of brushstrokes letting ones imagination fill in the gaps. The painting was included in the Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums 1995 exhibition devoted to the artist. In Herd Girl, Brough reveals his ability in pastel, a tricky medium. The beauty of the girl is softly and deftly captured, while the brighter colours of the distant landscape seem to almost swirl around her, though highlights of these richer tones are picked out in her hairband; harmonising the figure with her surroundings. Brough creates a rich, warm surface to the work, smudging the pastel in certain areas, but leaving his gestural pigment lines visible in others, creating a striking and unusual contrast. Broughs talent and approach was beautifully summarised by his friend and mentor, Sargent: . . . the grace, the fluidity, the lightness of touch that are so delightful in Brough; that very rare quality of surface that seems to make the actual paint a precious substance.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) BRETON WOMEN BY STREET LIGHT Signed with initials, oil on panel (27cm x 46cm (10.5in x 18in)) Footnote: Exhibited: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, 'Robert Brough' 1995, no.39 Note: Robert Broughs art is often overshadowed by the trauma and tragedy of his untimely death; after suffering horrific burns in a train collision outside of Sheffield. A great friend and protégé of Singer Sargent, the older artist rushed to be with his friend in his final days and following his death curated a memorial exhibition in celebration of the young artists talent. Broughs life was cut short during a steep upward career trajectory, he was very much a rising art star; working alongside Sargent and having recently been made an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Brough displayed a talent for both art and music from a young age, and was greatly encouraged by the familys neighbour, the painter Sir George Reid. With this support Brough found an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Aberdeen and used his earnings to fund trainings at Grays School of Art in the city, before applying to the R.S.A. Schools in Edinburgh in 1891. By the end of his first year, he had been awarded three prestigious prizes, thus beginning a notable career. Brough completed further training in Paris, enrolling at the Acadamie Julien in Paris with Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe, before travelling on in search of Sisley at Moret-sur-Seine and then Gauguin at Pont Aven in Brittany. By 1894 he had returned to his native Aberdeen and his steady progress was being closely monitored by the local press, When only three-and-twenty years of age Mr. Brough created some sensation and scored an undoubted triumph with two pictures shown at the Grafton Exhibition of the Society of Portrait Painters. His reputation already extended far beyond the confines of his native land. He had important pictures in Munich, Moscow, and in other leading Continental Galleries (1895, Aberdeen Daily Journal). Then by 1897, and the age of 25, he was in London working on society portraits alongside Sargent. Close engagement with the offered works by this intriguing artist reveals his true talent and dexterity; his lightness of touch and sophistication across mediums particularly apparent. Breton Women by Street Light is an atmospheric oil sketch, as Brough depicts the transient nature of early evening, as the light starts to glow through the windows, and skilfully captures the distinctive way that the white lace coiffed headdresses of the Breton women pick up touches of this reflected light. Brough achieves this with consummate ease, the paucity and economy of brushstrokes letting ones imagination fill in the gaps. The painting was included in the Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums 1995 exhibition devoted to the artist. In Herd Girl, Brough reveals his ability in pastel, a tricky medium. The beauty of the girl is softly and deftly captured, while the brighter colours of the distant landscape seem to almost swirl around her, though highlights of these richer tones are picked out in her hairband; harmonising the figure with her surroundings. Brough creates a rich, warm surface to the work, smudging the pastel in certain areas, but leaving his gestural pigment lines visible in others, creating a striking and unusual contrast. Broughs talent and approach was beautifully summarised by his friend and mentor, Sargent: . . . the grace, the fluidity, the lightness of touch that are so delightful in Brough; that very rare quality of surface that seems to make the actual paint a precious substance.
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) BULB PLANTING IN THE TUILERIES GARDENS, PARIS Signed with a monogram, pastel 23.5cm x 32cm (9.25in x 12.5in)
ROBERT BROUGH R.A., A.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1872-1905) ROWING BOATS BY A HARBOUR QUAY, CONCARNEAU Oil on panel, also painted verso 'Fishermen on the quay' 26.5cm x 35cm (10.5in x 13.75in)
A young man, possibly self-portrait, in fancy dress oil on canvas 119 x 87 cm. (46 7/8 x 34 1/4 in.) The canvas has been cut down to the lower edge to fit the exhibition frame.
A young man, possibly self-portrait, in fancy dress oil on canvas 119 x 87 cm. (46 7/8 x 34 1/4 in.) The canvas has been cut down to the lower edge to fit the exhibition frame.
PORTRAIT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JUSTICE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS 149x118.5cm.; 58¾x46¾in. oil on canvas EXHIBITED London 1908, Franco-British Exhibition Rome 1911, Royal Commission International Fine Arts Exhibiton, No.39
ROBERT BROUGH 1872-1905 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL 30.5 by 23 cm., 12 by 9 in. signed with the monogram, inscribed and dated l.l.: To J R G my FREEN / 93 oil on canvas laid on board Provenance: William Young Antiques Exhibited: Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Robert Brough ARSA, no. 11, lent by William Young Antiques
signed l.l.: R. Brough oil on canvas PROVENANCE Sotheby's, 19 November 1980, lot 23; Private collection EXHIBITED Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Robert Brough ARSA, 1995, no. 65 CATALOGUE NOTE Robert Brough came from humble beginnings below stairs of a grand house, Hamilton Palace, as the illegitimate son of a lady's maid and coachman to the Duchess of Hamilton. His mother Helen moved away from Hamilton Palace with her infant son and went to live with her brother, a dairy farmer. Although the Brough family struggled financially, Robert's childhood was happy and his talent was recognised at an early age. After his schooling he was apprenticed to the lithographic firm of Andrew Gibb and Co and he attended evening classes at Gray's School of Art. He showed a precocious predilection towards portraiture with unusual lighting effects from gas-lamps or firelight. In 1891 he was accepted into the Royal Scottish Academy Schools where he studied with Peploe who became a great friend. Peploe and Brough continued their studies together in Paris, at he Academié Julian where their tutors were the academic Bougereau, Laurens and Constant. The influence of the teachings in France and Brough's travels through Brittany were profound and demonstrated through the direction of his work which ranged between rustic landscape and elegant portraiture in the grand style. The new approach to art of Sargent and Whistler also greatly effected Brough's art and the close parallel between Sargent's flamboyant portraits and those of Brough is evidenced in the present sketch. Brough and Sargent were indeed good friends and the older artist possessed a genuine admiration for Brough's work, painting his portrait for The Chelsea Arts Club. Many of Brough's portraits were painted in Aberdeen where Brough established his reputation as a painter in the 1890s. 'Brough himself took on the new fashion of painting with delight, developing his own technique with virtuoso brushstrokes, bold colours, striking silhouettes and exaggerated poses... Brough's expressed ideal was "To combine the dash of Sargent and the beautiful refinement of Velazquez" and this is exactly what he did. ' (Robert Brough ARSA 1872-1905, exhibition catalogue for Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1995, p. 30) Unfortunately, Brough's genius was brought to an end when he was involved in a train accident near Leeds in January 1905. Brough was unable to escape from his sleeping-berth and was severely burnt by the flames. He died the next day with Sargent at his bedside.
