Background
I have always known that my grandfather was an artist. I don't
remember him, but I do remember his powerful self-portrait in oil
on wood. His name was Robert Sivell, but he was known to friends
and family, including my mother, as Bob. His portrait shows him as
very striking: lean, hawk-nosed, and olive skinned, with a shock
of black hair which is stark white in later photographs. I believe
he claimed an Italian heritage, although more recently his family
was thought to have moved to Paisley, Scotland as part of a
migration of Flemish weavers in the mid-nineteenth century.
In 1998 or 1999, my brother Harold visited the small town in
Scotland where my mother, my brother, and my sister were born (I
was born during my parents stay in Alexandria, Egypt). While
there, Harold acquired a copy of an art student's recent graduate
thesis on my grandfather's work. The paper makes claim for a new
recognition of my grandfather's artistic influence, through the
work of several of his students, more than through his own work.
When Harold returned and shared this thesis paper with my mother
and the rest of the family, it caused much flurry and excitement.
My mother felt compelled to write to the author to set the record
straight on some misstatements or gaps in the work. In doing so,
she involved my sister and brother, and excavated great piles of
papers from her past. I received a phone call in
which they reported, amid a scene of much hilarity, that
there were now two versions of my mother's letter; the one to be
mailed to the art student, and a second, more amusing one, for
family eyes only (unfortunately I have yet to see the second
version).
So we are embarking on a (long, slow) expedition to document
some of my grandfathers history, and possibly to locate some of
his work. My brother, sister, and I now have several pieces of
Bob's work, and my mother retains her favorite paintings. However,
many works that were still in the family at the time of Bob's
death were left in Great Britain, in the care of two of his
skilled students. Many of these have since been donated to the
Aberdeen Art Museum, by a bequest from Albert Morrocco. No
complete listing of his work exists, but the Aberdeen Museum now
stores 120 paintings (a mix of completed works and studies). At
least one larger work has been carefully cleaned and restored, and
several of these have been occasionally displayed.
Status
I took photos of paintings still in the family while on a 2003
visit to my mother in Florida, when an exploration of my mother's
closets unearthed at least 12 long forgotten portraits, in
addition to those we knew about already. The better images are
posted to the site now. When Mother died in 2014, I was able to
get better photos or scans of some paintings. Since then three
paintings have been donated to the Stewartry Museum in
Kirkcudbright: two heads of Bob's parents along with his youthful
self-portrait.
I found out about the large bequest of Bob's paintings to the Aberdeen Art
Gallery on my recent trip to the United Kingdom, and was
able to see a few of these paintings which were readily accessible
in the off-site storage facility in Kittybrewster. I was also able
to see Bob's large murals in Sivells, a student pub managed by the
Aberdeen University student association, inside their student
union (located on Gallowgate, only a few blocks from the Art
Gallery). The murals were cleaned and restored some time in the
past ten years, and are in fairly good condition. We did take
photographs, bu unfortunately the lighting and our limited
facility with an automatic digital camera combined to make the
photos pretty marginal. I am hoping to obtain copies of better
photos from the Aberdeen Art Gallery and/or the University.
I found two more of Bob's paintings in the possession of the
Kirkcudbright Stewartry Museum. A painting of young lady (possibly
my mother) hangs currently hangs in the museum, and a commissioned
portrait entitled "The Provost" hangs in the The
Tolbooth Art Centre, now an art center and education center.
Another painting, called "The Drawing Book" is listed in the
catalogue of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Inverclyde, and
has been exhibited a number of times over the past few decades. I
now have a photo of this in the Family Portraits Gallery. pages.
Previously heard from some cousins in Canada and the U.S., who
may have some paintings, and also from a buyer who acquired one of
Bob's paintings in an auction (early in 2003). A 2004 auction
"sighting" from Artnet indicates that a Sivell painting titled
"Washing day, Corrie, Isle of Arran" sold for $2,000. I believe
the family may have a study/sketch for this painting.
 I have some old family photos,
some of which have Bob's paintings on display at home or
elsewhere. At some point my mother decided to let go of those
paintings that she has not framed or hung in her home recently. My
sister, brother, and I used a round-robin approach to choose those
paintings we wanted most, and I shipped some of my selections to
my home address before leaving Tallahassee on August 19th, 2006.
Much to my relief, I received them safely. I now have a lovely,
though somber, portrait of my great grandfather hanging in my
living room, a small head of my grandmother (Belle) hung in family
portrait gallery (a.k.a. the stairwell), and two other painting
hung also. Another portrait of Bell needs to be framed before I
can hang it. The other paintings that I selected, including a set
of two small portraits of my great-grandparents, will remain
hanging in my mother's home for now. The old family photos from my
mother's childhood and youth have also arrived; I have scanned
these for reprinting, but many are in very poor condition and will
need to be improved by (careful) digital enhancemnt and repair.
I have just purchased a used copy of the memoir of Benno Schotz,
a well known sculptor in Scotland and a friend of Bob's from early
Glasgow days. The book is "Bronze is in my Blood", and the copy is
signed by the author/sculptor and is in good condition. The sad
part is it a withdrawn book from a Scottish library; apparently
there was not much interest. I am enjoying reading it, and have
found a photo of Bob with Benno Schotz and other friends
(unfortunately unrecognizable in costume and masked :-), and a
brief discussion about him and his art.
I have some written history, memories from my Mother consisting
of a combination of direct recollections, second hand stories, and
gleanings from old articles, letters and notes. She has unearthed
some articles and receipts specifically dealing with several of
his paintings. I need to collect and copy these the Kirkcudbright
Stewartry Museum. We have record of one painting that was
purchased by the IBM corporation for a show of some kind in New
York. I have attempted to trace this painting, however IBM no
longer maintains an art collection and I have no contact or
information about when or where paintings may have been sold. So
this seems to be a dead end.
A letter from the art student, Duncan Comrie, suggests that
there have been plans for an art show which would include some of
Bob's work. He was seeking more information about Bob, and had
many questions for my mother a few years ago..
Another item of news is that the plaster bust
of my grandfather by sculptor Benno Schotz still exists, and
was owned by Alberto Morrocco, Bob's former art student who was a
well known painter who died in 2002. Benno Schotz was a well known
sculptor, and a good friend & of Bob in the 1920's; the bust
was exhibited in the Paisley Art Gallery in 1923, along with three
of Bob's paintings. The letter from Duncan Comrie
implied that the bust might be available to the family,
however we have not located the bust.
The family owns a few small landscapes painted by Bob. I have a
small relatively bright watercolor; it is a Scottish landscape,
with fields and a stone wall. There is oil of the burn near his
home (The Hollow, Stell, Kirkcudbright). My brother has an
accurately dark and gloomy oil painting of Greyfriars Churchyard
and Edinburgh Castle (painted as a frontspiece of an out of print
book on Scotish buildings entitled "The Stones of Scotland", by
George Scott-Moncrieff), but another small ocean scene may have
been painted in the Mediteranean, with its turquoise see and
bright coastline.
My father, long divorced from my mother, currently has a painting
of my sister as a child, which was held by his sister, my Aunt
Marjorie, until her death several years ago. My mother still has
several works, including a large painting of her own mother,
Isobel Sivell, nee Sayers, and, I think, Bob's own self portrait
which I remember so vividly. I seem to remember a small painting
of the house with studio
which he built in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, where she grew up, and
known as the The Hollow, Stell, but it was not found in a recent
review of paintings in my Mother's house.
All of the paintings we own have suffered in the hot, humid
Florida climate, and several really need restoration. more
photographs are now posted, and new information about paintings
continues to trickle in!
Information Wanted:
various family members are interested in specific paintings, or
information about the family. Photos of any works by Robert Sivell
are always wanted. If you can help, please email
me with the information!
- Wanted: information about,
photos of, and location of a painting by Bob of wartime
evacuees. Jack and Bill Hunter the twins) posed for this
picture, and Bill Hunter would like to see it again.
- Wanted: location, photo of, and
information about a portrait of Margaret Jean Dymock Roger. Jean
Dymock was my mother's best friend in her youth. Her son has a
only a black & white photo of the portrait.
- Wanted: family tree for both
Sivell & Sayers,
- Wanted: location of bust of
Robert Sivell by Benno Schotz, also a better photo of this work.
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