Robertson was strongly influenced by the work of John Duncan, but for a brief period after the First World War Robertson adopted an unusual semi-abstract style, which has affinities with the Vorticist work of Wyndham Lewis and William Roberts. Some of these paintings dwell on his harrowing experiences in an ambulance unit in the First World War. Scottish painters were generally slow or unwilling to adopt the avant-garde styles sweeping across Europe in the 1920s, making this an unusual and important work in early twentieth-century Scottish art.
Eric Harald Macbeth Robertson (Scottish, 1887 - 1941)
Robertson was one of the most gifted students of his generation. Born in Dumfries, he moved to Edinburgh at the turn of the twentieth century and befriended the Symbolist painter, John Duncan, who became an important influence on his work. He was also inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites and the French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. Robertson featured in several group shows from 1912-4, which led to the formation of The Edinburgh Group in 1919. During the War he was stationed with the French Ambulance Unit where he began to paint more landscapes, yet it is his nude figure compositions, which scandalised Edinburgh society, that he is perhaps most associated. In 1923, following the failure of his marriage he moved to Liverpool and by the early 1930s he was largely forgotten as a painter.
