ROBERTSON, Percy

1869 - 1934

Percy Robertson was born at Bellagio, Milan, Italy around 1869, son of artist Charles Robertson (1836-10 November 1891) and his wife Alice Mary Lonsdale (1836-14 June 1916), eldest daughter of Capt. William Lonsdale, who married at Christ Church, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 12 December 1865. In 1871, Percy was a 2-year-old, living at Common Side, Walton-upon-Thames with his parents, 32[sic] year old Charles, born at Liverpool and 30[sic] year old Alice, who was born at New South Wales, Australia, and three sibling brothers, Charles Digby 4, born at Tunbridge Wells, Claude William, 1 born Blackheath and Adrian van der Meulen, 4 months, born Walton-on-Thames. By 1881 they had moved to Meadrow House, Godalming, Surrey with the addition of a daughter Mildred Alice 8 and another son Roland Sydney 4, both born at Walton-on-Thames. Percy was educated at Charterhouse and was still living at Meadrow House in 1891 but by 1901, a 33-year-old 'picture painter artist', boarding at 79 Clifton Hill, Marylebone. A talented watercolour landscape painter and very capable etcher being elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers and Engravers in 1908. He married at St George's Hanover Square, London in 1905, Edith Helen Nash (25 August 1870-20 June 1950) and they moved to The Cherries, Courthouse Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire where in 1911, a 42-year-old artist with his 40-year-old wife Edith, born Hampstead. About this time, he executed a series of approximately 200 views of the Thames from Oxford to Kingston-on-Thames. He exhibited widely including 33 works at the Royal Academy and 166 works at the Royal Society of Etchers. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1895-1905 and exhibited from Meadrow House, Godalming in 1898, four watercolours 'The Town Hall, Great Yarmouth', 'Early Morning Great Yarmouth', 'The Plough' and 'The Victoria Embankment' and three of his works were displayed at the Centenary Exhibition of the Ipswich Art Club in 1974, two watercolours 'The Isle of Dogs-Sunrise' and 'The Tower Bridge' and an etching 'The Houses of Parliament'. He was also a member of the Woodpecker Sketch Club, later named the Norfolk & Norwich Art Circle, in 1904 from London. Percy Robertson died at 11 Sheen Common Drive, Richmond, Surrey on 5 January 1934, aged 65, they had no children. He signed his works 'Percy Robertson' or 'P. R.' block letters.

Note. Percy's parents vary their census ages but Charles was baptised at St Peter's Liverpool on 3 October 1836 and Alice at Parramatta, New South Wales on 23 March 1836.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from The Cherries, Maidenhead
1909 1290 Hampden Court Palace - etching
1911 1403 At Dordrecht, Holland - etching
1912 1487 The Shoeing Forge - etching
         1495 At the Sign of 'The Bell' - etching
1913 1537 Waterloo Bridge - etching
1914 1223 The Grassmarket, Edinburgh - etching
         1229 The Custom House, London - etching
1915 281 Waterloo Bridge - etching
from Clifton Hill Studios, London NW
1916 266 Storm Clouds over the City - etching
         312 The Valley of the Tay - etching
1917 1216 Newcastle-on-Tyne - etching
         1230 Parliament Square, Westminster - etching
1918 1176 Stirling Castle - etching
1920 1116 Westminster from Vauxhall - etching
1922 997 A Sussex Mill - etching




Works by This Artist