robbie wraith
biography
 
Catalogue Introduction by Henry Wyndham, Chairman Sotheby's UK
Catalogue Introduction by HRH The Prince of Wales

It is a great pleasure to write a few words of introduction to this exhibition of paintings and drawings by Robbie Wraith. He is an artist I have very much admired ever since I was lucky enough to persuade him to exhibit with us in my days at The St. James's Art Group.

He stands in the great British tradition of meticulous and sensitive draughtsmanship. No spectator will leave a Robbie Wraith exhibition unimpressed by the combination of delicacy and authority in his drawings. As a portraitist he is much sought after, with a long record of distinguished sitters. As a painter, his interiors evoke a deeply sympathetic mood of contemplative calm. There can be few artists at work in Britain today whose work it is a greater pleasure to own.

 

Henry Wyndham, Chairman, Sotheby's UK. , catalogue introduction.
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“The variety and scope of the works on show are proof of his skill in three mediums – oil,
watercolour and drawing….they have a timeless quality of haunting beauty that remains in the mind of the observer, the draughtsmanship being of a rare quality seldom seen today. Robbie’s work is an object lesson for all to profit by, aspiring painters or collectors.”

Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire, catalogue introduction

Robbie Wraith left school at 16, and went to study in Florence at the invitation of Pietro Annigoni. Since then he has had twenty five one-man exhibitions.

 He has work in the private collection of HM The Queen as well as more than 40 pictures in the private collection of HRH The Prince of Wales, and also in the Royal Collection Windsor, The Vatican, Chatsworth, The National Trust, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Eton College, Blarney Castle, The MCC, Shell International and many others.

  A long list of distinguished portrait sitters has included HM The Queen, The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales, The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and Nelson Mandela, drawn while accompanying HRH The Prince of Wales as travelling artist on his official visits to South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.

Other work for The Prince of Wales includes two series of pictures of the house and gardens at Highgrove and a series of HMY Britannia, including its decommissioning ceremony. He painted the picture presented to Pope John Paul II to commemorate his visit to Canterbury in 1982, and has painted frescoes in two churches in Italy . In 1995 he was elected to The Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Other galleries and dealers he has exhibited with include:

The Royal Academy, The National Portrait Gallery, The Paris Salon, Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford Museum of Modern Art, Royal West of England Academy, Edinburgh Gallery, Royal Watercolour Society, New English Art Club, The Discerning Eye (invited by Brian Sewell ), Henry Wyndham Fine Art, Stephen Lacey Gallery, Petley Fine Art, Hatton Gallery Newcastle, Chicago Art Fair, Miami Art Fair, John Martin, Brian Sinfield, Albemarle Gallery, Jorgensen Fine Art Dublin, Catto Gallery, Bourne Galley, Belgrave Gallery, Berkeley Square Gallery, Alan Kluckow Fine Art

 

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©Robbie Wraith 2008
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