Robert Polhill Bevan (5 August 1865 – 8 July 1925) was a British painter, draughtsman and lithographer who was married to the Polish-born artist Stanisława de Karłowska.

He was born in Brunswick Square, Hove, near Brighton, the fourth of six children of Richard Alexander Bevan (1834–1918), a banker, and Laura Maria Polhill.

[3] The family, who could trace direct descent from Iestyn ap Gwrgant,[4] had left Wales in the 17th century and settled in London.

Her father had extensive land in central Poland and for the remainder of their married life they would make long summer visits there.

The influence of Gauguin was a key role in Bevan's development, helping him to discover the pure colour which led him to a premature Fauvism in 1904.

[7] However his first one-man exhibition in 1905, which contained probably the most radical paintings by a British artist at that time, was not a commercial success and was hardly noticed by the critics.

)[12] Having worked largely in isolation since returning from Pont-Aven, Bevan's paintings were noticed by Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore and he was invited to join Walter Sickert's Fitzroy Street Group.

In May 1911 the decision was made to form a new exhibiting society from the ranks of Fitzroy Street and so the Camden Town Group was founded.

It was here that the Cumberland Market Group consisting of Bevan, Gilman, Charles Ginner and John Nash held Saturday afternoon 'at homes'.

However, at about this time, he was first invited down to the Blackdown Hills on the Devon-Somerset border as a guest of landowner and amateur artist Harold Harrison.

Until the end of his life Bevan continued to paint in the Bolham valley and nearby Luppitt his angular style sitting well with the strong patterning of the landscape.

His London street scenes, which were largely in the area of St John's Wood and Belsize Park, were generally more favourably reviewed than his landscapes.

Whilst his earlier prints recall landscapes by Van Gogh the later works are more in the nature of tone translations of oil paintings.

Bevan's modesty and reticence and his "almost complete inability to put himself forward"[19] ensured that most of his works were unsold and a considerable number were left to his wife on his death.