Robert MacBryde

Robert MacBryde (5 December 1913[1] – 6 May 1966) was a Scottish still-life and figure painter and a theatre set designer.

At the height of their acclaim they courted a large circle of friends - including Michael Ayrton, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and John Minton as well as the writers Fred Urquhart,[4] George Barker, Elizabeth Smart, Frank Norman and Dylan Thomas - and were renowned for their parties at their studio (77 Bedford Gardens).

Influenced by Graham Sutherland and John Piper, MacBryde became a well-known painter of the Modernist school of art, known for his brightly coloured Cubist studies.

During the 1950s, both MacBryde and Colquhoun lost the attention of the art scene due to the rise of Abstraction, and as both had become heavy drinkers, serious artistic work became almost impossible.

Anthony Cronin, a friend of MacBryde and Colquhoun, describes them both with affection and respect in his memoir Dead as Doornails, as does the English painter, playwright and poet Arthur Berry in his autobiography A Three And Sevenpence Half Penny Man.