Robert Talbot Kelly

Robert Talbot Kelly (born January 24, 1861 in Birkenhead , then Cheshire , now Metropolitan Borough of Wirral , England , † December 30, 1934 in London , England) was a British painter and watercolorist, author and book illustrator.

Life

Kelly was the son of the Irish landscape painter Robert George Kelly. He left school in 1876 to work in a cotton trading company. During this time his father taught him the techniques of painting, drawing and representation using watercolors. He presented his first works under the name RG Kelly jun. out. Kelly left his employer in 1882 after receiving enough inspiration from a Mediterranean cruise to take up his father's profession. He took the ship to Egypt , rented a studio in Cairo and learned to speak fluent Arabic . He traveled all over Egypt, making notes, drawings and paintings about life in the cities, in the countryside and in the deserts. He spent a long time with the Bedouins of Egypt, whose life he described and drew in his books about the country. In 1915 he returned to London for health and age reasons, but continued to paint in the following years. His works are attributed to orientalism in art history .

Kelly illustrated the book Fire and Sword in Sudan by the Austrian Rudolf Slatin as early as 1896, who had been detained in Sudan during the Mahdi uprising in the previous years , but was able to flee. His first book on Egypt appeared in London in 1902, followed by three books on his trip to Burma . Kelly's depictions of Burma had a great influence on artists in the country in the 20th century.

The first exhibition of Kelly's works took place in 1902 at the Fine Art Society in London. He became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors (RI), the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA), the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists (RBC) and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).

Richard Talbot Kelly (son)

Kelly's son Richard Talbot Kelly (1896–1971) also became a painter. He had specialized in natural subjects , in particular the depiction of birds, and historical subjects .

Publications

illustrated by Kelly

• Rudolf Carl von Slatin: Fire and Sword in Sudan: My fights with the dervishes, my captivity and escape 1879–1895 . With a portrait and 19 illustrations by Kelly. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1896. (also on the Internet)

own illustrated books

• Egypt Painted and Described . A. & C. Black, London 1902.
• Burma Painted and Described . A. & C. Black, London 1905.
• Burma, Description and Travel , with 12 illustrations by the Author. A. & C. Black, London 1908; 2nd revised edition: A. & C. Black, London 1933.
• Egypt . A. & C. Black, London 1908.
• Burma: The Land and the People . JB Millet, Boston 1910

literature

• Lynne Thornton: Les orientalistes: Paintres voyageurs, 1828–1908 . ACR éditions, Paris 1983, ISBN 2-86770-002-7 .