E. Roland Bevan
Other names: Full name: Ernest Roland (sometimes Rowland)
Born 16 April 1891
Died 1979
Active: 1911 - 1968
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, teacher
Born in Wavertree, Liverpool. He was the son of Herbert John Bevan (born c.1861 in Newton, Montgomeryshire), school master. The family settled in the Birmingham area before 1901. He studied at Birmingham School of Art and then the Royal Academy Schools where he was awarded a bronze medal in 1913. Bevan married Margarita Lucy Frith (1892-1984) and so was related by marriage to her father, William Silver Frith and to her brother, Edgar Silver Frith.
Bevan made a number of portraits of over his career, including heads of Alexander Fleming FRS and the oboist, Leon Goossens. His sitters also included several artists: James Bateman RA, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, RA, George Henry RA and Henry Rushbury as well as fellow sculptors, William Bateman Fagan and Captain Adrian Jones.
Bevan was an active member of the Chelsea Arts Club (CAC). He was chairman between 1940-46 and a director of the Chelsea Arts Ball company that staged the New Year's Eve balls in the Albert Hall in aid of the Artists Benevolent Fund. Bevan's son, Oliver, says that his father used to call in at the Club regularly five nights a week, because there were often architects who needed a piece of decorative masonry designed and made. It is possible that Bevan met his wife through the CAC because William Silver Frith was also a club member. Sometime, presumably after William Silver Frith died, Bevan became a lodger in his widow's house, because both his and Margarita Lucy Frith's address on their wedding certificate are the same. Among other known connections to the CAC, was Bevan's introduction of Alexander Fleming as a member (there was a policy of introducing high-profile non-artistic people as members). Bevan and Fleming became friends and the latter sat for his portrait (see above).
This entry includes information submitted by Oliver Bevan.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Portrait Bust
1916 (Presumed)
Portrait
December 1917 (Presumed)
Locations
Address 22 The Avenue Acock's Green Birmingham | View on map
1916 (Presumed) - 1917
Address 51 Rushholme Road London SW15 | View on map
1929 - 1957
Between 1931-35 studio address at 18 Gunter Grove given instead.
Studio located at Elgin Studio Trafalgar Square London | View on map
1923 (Circa) - 1928 (Circa)
Studio located at 18 Gunter Grove Chelsea London SW10 | View on map
1931 (Circa) - 1935 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Royal Birmingham Society of Artists [Spring] Exhibition, 1916
'Portrait Bust'
Exhibited at The Birmingham Art Circle. The Forty-Eighth Exhibition, 1917
'Portrait'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1923 - 1957
Exhibited 21 times (18 times up to 1951), thirty works in all (primarily portrait busts and figure studies)
Exhibited at Twenty-Five Years of Birmingham Art (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), 1935
6 November 1935 - 6 December 1935
Exhibited two sculptures in carved marble: 'Audrey' (dated 1935, lent by A. C. J. Wall); and 'Head of a Baby' (undated in the catalogue, lent by the artist) - cat. nos 66-67 [summary].
Organized Children in Sculpture (Royal Society of British Sculptors), 1947
Institutional and Business Connections
Associate member of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1945
Chairwoman/chairman of Chelsea Arts Club
1940 - 1946
Fellow of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1948 - 1968
Honorary treasurer of Royal Society of British Sculptors
1958 - 1961
Member of Birmingham Art Circle
1917
Member of Chelsea Arts Club
1920 - 1965 (Circa)
Bevan was a long-standing active member of the Club. He was chairman between 1940-46 and a member of the Chelsea Arts ball committee
Member of council Royal Society of British Sculptors
1946 - 1948
Studied at Birmingham Municipal School of Art, Central School
Studied under Catterson-Smith (no dates are given). See 'A Birmingham Sculptor' in Birmingham Mail, 8 September, 1931, in 'Birmingham Biography', vol. 18, (February-December 1931), p. 205.
Studied at Royal Academy Schools
1913 (Presumed)
Studied at the Birmingham School of Art, and following this at the Royal Academy School (no dates are given). See 'A Birmingham Sculptor' in Birmingham Mail, 8 September, 1931, in 'Birmingham Biography', vol. 18, (February-December 1931), p. 205.
In 1913, he won a second prize of £10 and a bronze medal for a model of a design. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1913', (1915), p. 29.
Teacher of modeling at Central School of Arts and Crafts
September 1944 (Probable)
The 1944-1945 prospectus lists an 'R.E. Bevan' (annotated in pen in the printed prospectus - probably the same person) as a 'sub' teacher of modelling in the School of Drawing, Modelling and Allied Subjects. Not listed in 1945-1946, but 'E.R. Bevan' is listed as a teacher of day and evening modelling classes in the same school from 1946 onwards.
Still listed as a teacher of modelling in the 1951-1952 prospectus.
Unsuccessful in ballot for election to Royal Academy of Arts
Despite nominations in 1928, 1937, 1945 and 1952.
Personal and Professional Connections
Nominated by Alfred Turner
26 April 1928
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Henry Poole
26 April 1928
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by William McMillan
26 April 1928
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Henry George Rushbury
26 April 1928
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by George Henry
26 April 1928
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Gilbert Ledward
26 April 1937 - February 1952
Three nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], 1937-1952, all unsuccessful. Date of interim nomination not recorded as 'start date' or 'end date': January 1945.
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
26 April 1937 - January 1945
Two nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], in 1937 and 1945, both unsuccessful.
Nominated by Sydney Lee
26 April 1937
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful. Possibly some later ammendment made to nomination [see Nominations for Associateship, c.1938-c.1961, p.34].
Nominated by Henry Bishop
26 April 1937
For RA; unsuccessful.
Nominated by James Arthur Woodford
January 1945
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
1945
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Nominated by Edmund Thomas Wyatt Ware
1945
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Nominator of Edgar Silver Frith
1957 (Presumed)
For membership of the Royal Society of British Sculptors
Related to Edgar Silver Frith
Bevan was the brother-in-law of Edgar Silver Frith
Related to William Silver Frith
Bevan married William Silver Frith's daughter, Margarita Lucy Frith (1892-1984), in 1927. (W.S. Frith had died three years before the marriage took place.)
Sources
Artists and Bohemians: 100 Years with the Chelsea Arts Club
1992
multiple
Birmingham Biography, Newspaper Cuttings, 1872-1966 Birmingham Biography
See 'A Birmingham Sculptor' in Birmingham Mail, 8 September, 1931, in 'Birmingham Biography', vol. 18, (February-December 1931), p. 205.
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
2001
RG13 piece 2922 folio 92 page 19
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911
2009
RG14PN18660 RG78PN1115 RD392 SD1 ED22 SN174
England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1940
2002
Name: Ernest R Bevan
Spouse Surname: Frith
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1927
Registration district: Wandsworth
Inferred County: Surrey
Volume Number: 1d
Page Number: 1460
AND
Name: Margarita L Frith
Spouse Surname: Bevan
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1927
Registration district: Wandsworth
Inferred County: Surrey
Volume Number: 1d
Page Number: 1460
England & Wales, Death Index: 1916-2007
2007
Name: Ernest Roland Bevan
Birth Date: 16 Apr 1891
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1979
Age at Death: 87
Registration district: Wandsworth
Inferred County: Greater London
Volume: 15
Page: 1638
England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915
2006
Name: Ernest Roland Bevan
Year of Registration: 1891
Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun
District: West Derby
County: Lancashire
Volume: 8b
Page: 634
List of Members: Royal Society of British Sculptors
2008
London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts London. Syllabus and Timetable, 1951-1952
September 1951 (Presumed)
p. 26.
London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. Prospectus and Time-Table for the Session 1946-1947
September 1946 (Presumed)
Unpaged timetable.
London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. Session Prospectus and Time-Table, 1944-1945
September 1944 (Presumed)
Unpaged timetable.
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1927-1938
1938
p.150.
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, c.1939-c.1961
1961 (Circa)
p.34.
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. Exhibition, 1916 [Spring] Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
1916
p. 37.
The Forty-Eighth Exhibition of Works by Members of the Art Circle, held at the Galleries of the Royal Society of Artists, New Street, Birmingham, 1917
November 1917
p. 26.
Twenty-Five Years of Birmingham Art, 1935 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Exhibition Catalogues
1935
Unpaged.
Citing this record
'E. Roland Bevan', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1216997144, accessed 26 Mar 2023]
