Robert Anning Bell
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(b London, 14 April 1863; d London, 27 Nov
1933).
English decorative artist and painter. He was articled to an
architect and studied at Westminster School of Art under Frederick
Brown and at the Royal Academy Schools. Later he worked in the
studio of Aimé Morot in Paris and travelled to Italy. Bell belonged
to the group of artist–craftsmen who brought about the last
flowering of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He painted in oil and
watercolour and was among the pioneers of the revival of the use of
tempera. He was an illustrator and also worked in stained glass and
mosaic. He is best known for a series of bas-reliefs in coloured
plaster, a group of which was used in the interior decoration at Le
Bois de Moutiers, a house in Varengeville, Normandy, designed by
Edwin Lutyens in 1898. Bell’s understanding of early Italian art
underpinned his work in mosaic, a medium he used to great effect in
three public commissions in London: the Horniman Museum, Westminster
Cathedral and St Stephen’s Hall. He was an active member, and in
1921 Master, of the ART WORKERS’ GUILD, as well as a member of the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, helping to organize the latter’s
shows in London, Turin, Brussels and Paris. He was an instructor in
painting and design at University College, Liverpool, in 1894, chief
of the design section at Glasgow School of Art from 1911, and
Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1918
to 1924. He was elected ARA in 1914 and RA in 1922. His wife, Laura
Richard-Troncy, a pupil of Alphonse Legros, assisted him with
gesso-work and gilding.
