Alexander Robertson
Former pupil Alex Robertson who attended Baines School from 1956 to 1963, has passed away at St James’s Hospital Leeds aged 79. He lived in of Cookridge, Leeds.
After leaving Baines Alex went to Bangor University to read History. After graduating he studied at the Courtauld Institute in London under Sir Anthony Blunt (famous spy, though Alex always assured me that none of his students knew).
From there he went to work at Leeds Art Gallery in the print room, eventually rising to be Keeper of Leeds City Art Gallery which included several satellite institutions, including Temple Newsham House. He worked at the Art Gallery for more than 30 years.
He became a distinguished art historian, specialising in Victorian painting. He oversaw the acquisition of a collection of watercolours by Turner from Horton Hall outside Leeds (the Hall needed a new roof)! He wrote a very well received book 'Atkinson Grimshaw', the first comprehensive study of this artist and was considered a world authority on the life and work of this artist. If you are thinking of buying a copy for Christmas you will find it is very hard to get hold of a copy these days. He was regularly called upon by the major auction houses to authenticate works attributed to Grimshaw and enjoyed his visits to London to do so. He was a regular at Christie's and Bonham's auction houses.
He was a great music lover, particularly opera, and was a regular attendee at Opera North's performances in Leeds and a great supporter of the company. He also went to performances at the English National Opera in London and had an enormous collection of recordings which he studied carefully and listened to with great pleasure.
As an Italophile he studied the language and was a regular visitor to the country, sometimes alone and sometimes with his father, Alec. Ill health over the last few years (precipitated by a catastrophic fall on the bus) curbed his travel, but not his enthusiasm.
Alex lived alone and was very happy in his own company. He was a keen gardener maintaining colourful flowerbeds and a productive greenhouse and vegetable plot. He was a dutiful son, caring for his father, Alec, well into his 90s. His mother, Nora, died in the mid 1980s
His wide circle of friends and colleagues rallied round him in these last few difficult weeks.
He did not want a funeral. After his cremation his ashes will go to St Chad's (by arrangement with the vicar) to be with those of his parents.
His time at Leeds Art Gallery
Appropriately when the spirit of Surrealism is very much in the air with new exhibitions at the Henry Moore Institute and The Hepworth Wakefield marking the centenary of its inception, Alex was the engine behind the 1986 landmark exhibition ‘Surrealism in Britain in the Thirties: Angels of Anarchy and Machines for Making Clouds’ that recreated the London exhibition 50 years on that had first introduced UK. audiences to its subversive pleasures.
He was part of the team that saw the expansion of the Gallery through its special relationship with the Henry Moore Foundation in the late 1970s. In 1988 he was the principal organiser of the exhibition ‘100 Years of Art in Britain’ that marked the centenary of the opening of Leeds City Art Gallery. Above all and for many it will be his association with the 19th century Leeds-born artist John Atkinson Grimshaw that will be remembered. Restoring his reputation through his meticulous research that resulted in books and exhibitions, the many ‘Grimmis’ on show today at the Gallery and in its collection are imbued, and always will be, with his illuminating insights.