Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Abstract

The Roberson Archive, the archive
of the artists' colorman Charles
Roberson & Co. (1819-1985) is
housed at the Hamilton Kerr Insti­
tute in Cambridge. Roberson was
one of the most important colormen
in nineteenth-century London. The
material in the archive gives detailed
information about the internal
workings of the company and its re­
lations to both its customers and
suppliers. It is the largest artists' col­
orman archive in the United King­
dom and covers the period from
1815 to 1944, providing a record of
the materials and techniques of
many of the leading nineteenth-and
twentieth-century British artists. In
addition to catalogues, sample books,
and more than three hundred ac­
count ledgers, there is a collection of
pigments and ob jects sold by Rober­
son that provides material for analy­
sis and study. A three-year research
project is currently being undertaken
to catalogue the archive, compile a
database of the most important doc­
uments, and make the archive acces­
sible for research.

Figure 1. Roberson's shop at 154 Piccadilly,

ca. 189{}-1911. Fitzwilliam Museum, Uni­

versity of Cambridge.

30

The Roberson Archive: Content and Significance

Sally A. Wo odcock

Hamilton Kerr Institute

University of Cambridge

Whittlesford

Cambridge CB2 4NE

United Kingdom

The company's history

Charles Roberson opened his first recorded shop to sell artists' materials at

54 Long Acre, London. Although accounts of the firm's history give the date

as 1810 , Henry Matley is listed as "colourman to artists" at this address in a

trade directory of 1817 , and a note in a recipe book dating from around the

turn of the century states that Roberson did not succeed Matley until^1819

(1). At that time, the shop was in the heart of the artistic area of London,

with the Royal Academy Schools being based nearby in Somerset House on

the Strand. In 1828 Roberson and his assistant Thomas Miller became part­

ners and moved to 51 Long Acre (2). The partnership dissolved in 1840.

The company continued to trade on Long Acre, moving to the premises they

built at number 99 in 1853. In 1868 the Royal Academy Schools moved to

Burlington House, Piccadilly, and Roberson opened a retail branch on Pic­

cadilly in 1890 (Fig. 1) (3). Over the fo llowing years, however, many artisans

and manufacturing trades moved away from the center of London to be

replaced by retailers and offices; in 1937 Roberson closed both the Piccadilly

and Long Acre branches, moving to Parkway, Camden (4). They retained a

West End presence fo r an unspecified length of time, arranging with the

Medici Galleries in Grafton Street to move a "representative stock of Artists

materials" from their closed Piccadilly branch in January 1940, to be sold

from the galleries on commission (5). Two successive French addresses ap­

peared in their catalogues after 1870, which they described as their depots in

Paris, but which were in fact the premises of Parisian colormen (6).

The company remained in the Roberson family until sold to a Dutch fi rm

in the 1970s. G. F. Roberson Park remained a board member (7). In^1985 it

went into liquidation. At liquidation the name was bought by the London

colorman Cornelissen and a small range of high-quality materials bearing the

Roberson name is still produced (8).

The arrival of the archive at the Hamilton Kerr Institute

In 1975 Roberson's historic accounts ledgers were moved to the Hamilton

Kerr Institute (9). They were loaned to the Institute fo r safekeeping and

research and, when the company was dissolved, became part of the Fitzwilliam

Museum's manuscript collection. The archive is now housed in the Institute

and will be available fo r research once cataloguing is complete.

The archive consists of a collection of objects, including a large number of

pigment samples, and more than three hundred ledgers dating from 1815 to

1944. There are several continuous series of different types of ledgers, but
      there are many gaps, and some sets appear to be incomplete (10). Despite
      this, it is the most extensive artists' colorman archive in the United Kingdom.
      The manuscripts in the Roberson Archive give a detailed picture of the
      company's activities. Only the most important categories are discussed here,
      as many of the warehouse, order, day, and sundries books contain information
      duplicated in the main accounts books.

Catalogues and sample books

The catalogues preserved in the archive date from 1840-1 853 to 1926-1 933

and illustrate goods sold by Roberson. They offered a fairly conventional

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice