Through his involvement with the New England Art Club in the early 1910's, Robins befriended Harold J.L. Wright (1885-1961), a print connoisseur who worked at Colnaghi's. The two became close friends and Wright was an enthusiastic supporter and avid collector of Robins' art. One source even attributes Robins' change from aquatint to etching to Wright's influence (Lang, 161). As with many artists working in these mediums, Robins usually reworked his plates, producing up to nine states. Copies of the earlier trial states are rare. In addition to this, Robins is known to have been very self-critical, frequently destroying states or plates of which he did not approve. Many of these rare or unique states were collected by Wright creating what was recognised as the most thorough collection of Robins' work:
"The Print Room ...[of the British Museum] posses a fairly large and representative collection of ...[Robins'] work, though nothing to compare with the almost complete collection, including numerous rare trial proofs, owned by Mr. H.J.L. Wright..." (Dodgson, 93)
In 1964 Wright's collection was bequeathed by his widow to be divided between the Baillieu Library and the National Gallery of Art, Wellington, New Zealand. As a result of this bequest, half of this excellent collection of Robin's prints came into the Baillieu Library Print Collection. A catalogue raisonne of Robbins' prints has never been published, although Wright was known to have been working on such a catalogue. It is thought that Robins produced around 160 etchings - 105 are held in the collection of the Baillieu Library (143 proofs). The Baillieu's collection also includes 15 aquatints, 15 lithographs and 3 wood engravings.
Exert from: Alisa Bunbury, The art of William Palmer Robins: selected from the Print Collection of the Baillieu Library, Parkville, Vic, University of Melbourne Library, 1995.
Select Bibliography
Dodgson, Campbell, "The English Landscapes of W.P. Robins", Bookman's Journal, XII 1925, pp.93-96
Lang, Gladys Engel and Lang, Kurt, Etched in Memory: The Building and Survival of Artistic Reputation, Chapel Hill, 1990
