Robert Bevan was the world's most reluctant modernist. Having painted alongside Gaugin at Pont Aven and been a founder member of the Camden Town group, His avant-garde credentials were impeccable. But the first exhibition of his work for more than 40 years gives a sense of a man ill-at-ease with the march of technology who simply wanted to get back to his horses.Bevan was perhaps the most accomplished equestrian painter since Stubbs, and had a studio overlooking Cumberland Market, historically the heart of London's horse-trading activity. Unfortunately, his obsession coincided with horses becoming obsolete technology. While contemporaries were painting angular homages to the machine age, Bevan's meticulous views of Hansom cabs, horse fairs and the like began to seem somewhat quaint.Bevan's Edwardian nostalgia never recovered from the interruption of the first world war, but he was an accomplished and progressive painter in his own modest way. His images of London's declining horse fairs show the world of Stubbs reframed by Degas and given Sickert's sickly pall.Bevan's career may have been less adversely affected by the war had he opted to paint it. Slightly younger contemporaries such as CRW Nevinson and John Nash signed up, and it is their harrowing, geometric images of the front that steal this show. The exhibition is a valiant effort to resuscitate Bevan's reputation, yet the overall impression is of a King Canute figure, haplessly painting against the tide of history.ArtExhibitionsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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