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Robert Taylor Naval Art
Naval Art  Artists  Robert Taylor |
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| Robert Taylor |
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The name Robert Taylor has been synonymous with aviation art over a quarter of a century. His paintings of aircraft, more than those of any other artist, have helped popularise a genre which at the start of this remarkable artist's career had little recognition in the world of fine art. When he burst upon the scene in the mid-1970s his vibrant, expansive approach to the subject was a revelation. His paintings immediately caught the imagination of enthusiasts and collectors alike . He became an instant success. As a boy, Robert seemed always to have a pencil in his hand. Aware of his natural gift from an early age, he never considered a career beyond art, and with unwavering focus, set out to achieve his goal. Leaving school at fifteen, he has never worked outside the world of art. After two years at the Bath School of Art he landed a job as an apprentice picture framer with an art gallery in Bath, the city where Robert has lived and worked all his life. Already competent with water-colours the young apprentice took every opportunity to study the works of other artists and, after trying his hand at oils, quickly determined he could paint to the same standard as much of the art it was his job to frame. Soon the gallery was selling his paintings, and the owner, recognising Roberts talent, promoted him to the busy picture-restoring department. Here, he repaired and restored all manner of paintings and drawings, the expertise he developed becoming the foundation of his career as a professional artist. Picture restoration is an exacting skill, requiring the ability to emulate the techniques of other painters so as to render the damaged area of the work undetectable. After a decade of diligent application, Robert became one of the most capable picture restorers outside London. Today he attributes his versatility to the years he spent painstakingly working on the paintings of others artists. After fifteen years at the gallery, by chance he was introduced to Pat Barnard, whose military publishing business happened also to be located in the city of Bath. When offered the chance to become a full-time painter, Robert leapt at the opportunity. Within a few months of becoming a professional artist, he saw his first works in print. Roberts early career was devoted to maritime paintings, and he achieved early success with his prints of naval subjects, one of his admirers being Lord Louis Mountbatten. He exhibited successfully at the Royal Society of Marine Artists in London and soon his popularity attracted the attention of the media. Following a major feature on his work in a leading national daily newspaper he was invited to appear in a BBC Television programme. This led to a string of commissions for the Fleet Air Arm Museum who, understandably, wanted aircraft in their maritime paintings. It was the start of Roberts career as an aviation artist. Fascinated since childhood by the big, powerful machines that man has invented, switching from one type of hardware to another has never troubled him. Being an artist of the old school, Robert tackled the subject of painting aircraft with the same gusto as with his large, action-packed maritime pictures - big compositions supported by powerful and dramatic skies, painted on large canvases. It was a formula new to the aviation art genre, at the time not used to such sweeping canvases, but one that came naturally to an artist whose approach appeared to have origins in an earlier classical period. Roberts aviation paintings are instantly recognisable. He somehow manages to convey all the technical detail of aviation in a traditional and painterly style, reminiscent of the Old Masters. With uncanny ability, he is able to recreate scenes from the past with a carefully rehearsed realism that few other artists ever manage to achieve. This is partly due to his prodigious research but also his attention to detail: Not for him shiny new factory-fresh aircraft looking like museum specimens. His trade mark, flying machines that are battle-scarred, worse for wear, with dings down the fuselage, chips and dents along the leading edges of wings, oil stains trailing from engine cowlings, paintwork faded with dust and grime; his planes are real! Roberts aviation works have drawn crowds in the international arena since the early 1980s. He has exhibited throughout the US and Canada, Australia, Japan and in Europe. His one-man exhibition at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC was hailed as the most popular art exhibition ever held there. His paintings hang in many of the worlds great aviation museums, adorn boardrooms, offices and homes, and his limited edition prints are avidly collected all around the world. A family man with strong Christian values, Robert devotes most of what little spare time he has to his home life. Married to Mary for thirty five years, they have five children, all now grown up. Neither fame nor fortune has turned his head. He is the same easy-going, gentle character he was when setting out on his painting career all those years ago, but now with a confidence that comes with the knowledge that he has mastered his profession. Sadly he passed away in January 2024.
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| Text for the above items : |
Contact Bearing 190 by Robert Taylor. H.M.S. Kelly steams at full speed to intercept a U-Boat which is bearing down on an essential and otherwise vulnerable Allied supply convoy. The tension among the supply ships crews, tempered by the strong faith in their protectors, is almost tangible. |
Royal Yacht Britannia by Robert Taylor. The Royal Yacht Britannia is show in the Thames at her traditional mooring off Castle Point against the dramatic backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. |
The Calm Before the Storm by Robert Taylor. Dawn had broken to reveal another glorious day in paradise, and on board the USS Arizona and the repair ship USS Vestal alongside, the crew were taking it easy. All next week they would be hard at work preparing for sea, but today was Sunday, and that meant light duties. On the Arizona, the duty crew were preparing the stern of the battleship, erecting the awnings for the ships band at Morning Colors. The young officer in charge smiled approvingly, it was an inspiring scene and he thought that the recently overhauled battleship had never looked more impressive. But within the hour he would glance skyward, and a frown of puzzlement crease his forehead as, out of nowhere, Japanese carrier-based aircraft were descending on the unsuspecting naval base. As he registers the bright red circles on their wings, the blood froze in his veins. He realized that hell had come to Pearl Harbor! Then, just before 08.10hrs, the unthinkable happened. A bomb from a Nakajima B5N Kate high-altitude bomber penetrated the ship's armor plated deck and exploded in the forward magazine. Within seconds a cataclysmic blast ripped through the Arizona, devastating the mighty ship which would burn for two days, taking with her the lives of nearly twelve hundred men. In tribute to all those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor on that infamous day Robert Taylor has created his poignant new landmark painting. The Arizona has since become the focal point for the memorial at Pearl Harbor and this moving piece portrays this proud ship as those who survived would surely like to remember her - in all her glory prior to the attack. |
Offshore Bombardment by Robert Taylor The Prinz Eugen, one of the finest and most famous ships in the German Navy, shelling Russian shore positions in Western Samland, the Baltic, January 1945 Earlier in the war The Prinz Eugen took part in the sinking of H.M.S. Hood and later the Channel Dash. |
Spitfire Clipper by Robert Taylor. Tea carried down the Min River from the plantations on Chinese junks, is loaded aboard the American clipper Spitfire in Pagoda Anchorage, Foochow, October 1857. In this busy port scene a steam tug approaches, indicating the Clipper is almost ready to sail for London, a voyage that she will complete in 113 days. Roberts exquisite rendition is now available as a limited edition print. |
HMS Belfast by Robert Taylor. At the outbreak of World War II, H.M.S. Belfast had already joined the Home Fleet operating out of Scapa Flow. Patrolling north of the Faeroes in October 1939 she came across and captured the German liner Cap Norte. This success was short-lived, however, when she struck a mine, the explosion breaking her back. HMS Belfast rejoined the Home Fleet in November 1942, under the command of Captain (later Admiral Sir Frederick) Parham, HMS Belfast was the largest and arguably the most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy. After repairs and modernisation she was the best-equipped cruiser afloat. Later she went on to play an important role in the Normandy Landings of June 1944. |
Remember Pearl Harbor! by Robert Taylor December 7, 1941. Japanese Aichi dive-bombers make a final attempt to destroy the USS Nevada as she lay beached at Hospital Point. Behind her the destroyer USS Shaw is on fire, moments later she will explode. In the docks beyond, the battleship Pennsylvania, the cruiser Helena and the flagship Argonne can all be seen in the swirling palls of dense smoke. |
Cutty Sark by Robert Taylor. The Cutty Sark sailed the worlds great trading routes under the Red Ensign between 1870 and 1895, when she was sold to a Portuguese company. In 1922 she was bought by a Captain Dowman and rigged as a sail training ship. She is now preserved in dry-dock on the Thames River, Greenwich Maritime Museum, London. |
Farewell America by Robert Taylor. The Queen Mary sails majestically past the Statue of Liberty as she departs from New York, bound for Europe, early post war. |
HMS Kelly by Robert Taylor. HMS Kelly leaving the Grand Harbour, Malta in 1941 with HMS Warspite in the background. HMS Kellys captain was Lord Mountbatten. |
Secret Operation by Robert Taylor. Submariners are a special breed of sailor. Their environment, operating deep beneath the surface of the waves, is both unnatural and dangerous, and demands men of cool courage and exceptional quality. Prowling the depths like a mammoth shark, sometimes hunted, submarine crews live and fight, and sometimes die together, alone in the remote expanses of the worlds great oceans. Regardless of national flag under which they sail, this small elite Silent Service is both feared and admired by all who sail the seas. Plying their deadly trade in World War Two, the German U-boats posed such threat to the vital Atlantic convoys; Winston Churchill feared the submarine threat more than anything Hitler had at his disposal. Hunting in wolf packs, roaming the shipping lanes far beyond the reach of protective aircraft, they decimated the Allied merchant vessels during the Battle of the Atlantic. Manned entirely by volunteers, British and American submarines saw action in every maritime theatre during the great conflict of 1939 - 1945, the crews fighting their solitary, stealthy, secret war with courage and nerves of steel. This print captures the menacing beauty of a submarine on the surface: S-Class type HMS Sceptre slips her moorings in Scapa Flow, Scotland, and glides quietly into the North Sea to begin another top secret underwater operation. On the conning tower the skipper takes a final look across the water to the distant highlands while the crew savour the fresh salt air knowing soon they will submerge into their eerie, silent, artificial world, beneath the waves. |
South Atlantic Task Force by Robert Taylor. H.M.S. Hermes prepares to launch her Sea Harriers whilst a Sea King stands off: H.M.S. Arrow in the foreground ploughs into the swell, whilst H.M.S. Sheffield keeps station off the port beam. Following are H.M.S. Glamorgan and the auxiliary Fleet Tankers Olna and Resource. |
Battleship Bismarck by Robert Taylor The pride of the German Navy, this magnificent battleship attracted the full wrath of the Royal Navy when, by brilliant gunnery, she sank the Hood. Within three days she was herself sunk by the Home Fleet with the loss of all but 110 of her crew. |
Attack on the Hiei by Robert Taylor. Marine Ace Captain Joe Foss leads a flight of eight F4F Wildcats of VMF121, based at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, in a diversionary attack on the Imperial Japanese battlecruiser Hiei north of Savo Island, Friday November 13, 1942. In the distance TBF Avenger torpedo bombers of VMSB-131, having already attacked from the starboard side, head for base. That evening, after relentless air attack, the Hiei, disappeared beneath the sea- the first Japanese battleship sunk by American Forces in World War II |
Phantom Showtime by Robert Taylor Irish and I came into the break smoking at 500 knots, below the level of the flight deck. I could see thousands of men watching from the catwalks. I made a six-G break turn with 90 degree angle of bank. We landed after one of my best passes of the cruise. - Commander Randy Duke Cunningham. Back on deck, first to shake the hands of Lt.Randy Cunningham and his Radar Intercept Officer, Lt (jg) Willie Irish Driscoll, was ordnancement Willie White: Mr. Cunningham, we got our MiG today, didn't we! It was January 19, 1972 aboard the USS Constellation in the Gulf of Tonkin. As Cunningham shut down the engines of his Fighting Falcons F-4J Phantom, Task Force 77 Commander Admiral Cooper congratulated Cunningham and Driscoll on achieving their first of five air victories They went on to become the US Navys only Aces of the Vietnam war. |
Atlantic Wolves by Robert Taylor. SOLD OUT. |
Ark Royal by Robert Taylor Robert Taylors tribute to HMS Ark Royal, Britains last conventional aircraft carrier, seen steaming with her Phantoms on deck. Launched in 1950, HMS Ark Royal entered service in 1955 and her flag flying tours over the next two decades took her to the far corners of the world. |
Atlantic Rendezvous by Robert Taylor. SOLD OUT. |
HMS Hood by Robert Taylor. HMS Hood ablaze after its magazine was hit by a salvo from the DKM Bismark, May 24, 1941 One of the rarest of the early Robert Taylor prints, published in 1980, we have one secondary market print available. The eidition was not numbered. The print is in fair condition, with only a slight crease, and a mark on the border. The colours on the print and the signature have not faded much at all, as the print was kept framed and in a corridor out of sunlight. Fading is normally an issue with these older prints, so it is rare to find one with very good colour. |
HMS Kelly by Robert Taylor. SOLD OUT. |
Steaming Into Wind by Robert Taylor. SOLD OUT. |
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