An Introduction to Dutch Art (Artist Brian Robb's signed copy)

London: Faber & Gwyer, 1929. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good / Fair. First edition. Hardback, bound in the original red cloth with paper label to spine. 22.5 × 16.5cm, xxiii + 304pp. This copy belonged to artist Brian Robb, who has written his name and address (Hampstead Grove, London, NW3) to the ffep (as well as a small pencil doodle). Brian Robb was born in 1913, trained at Chelsea and the Slade, and in 1937 he married Barbara Anne, founder of the pressure group Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions. Brian and Barbara bought a tiny cottage in Hampstead Grove, northwest London, where they would entertain family, friends, politicians and artists. He served as a Camouflage Officer in the Western desert in the Second World War, and in 1963 he became head of illustration at the Royal College of Art, taking over from Edward Ardizzone. A well-respected study of Dutch art, from the foreign influences of the Raphaelesque and Baroque styles, Frans Hals and his school, Dutch Popular Art, and finally to Vermeer and his circle. Illustrated throughout with black and white plates. Condition: Fair condition. The cloth is faded and bumped all over, and the inner binding is starting to weaken in places but still holding, with no pages loose. The main body of text is in good clean condition, and the book remains in strong readable condition, and with an interesting provenance.