My 2x great-grandmother Margaret Reid had fourteen siblings. One of her younger sisters, my 2x great-grandaunt Elizabeth Reid, married Robert Timmis in Arbroath in 1914, when she was 28. On Elizabeth and Robert’s marriage registration, his occupation was given as art master, and although he’d been born in Leek in Staffordshire, his address at that time was in Liverpool.

Intrigued, I researched Robert further, discovering he was quite a well-known artist. Then last year, a serendipitous search led me to a Robert Timmis painting being sold online. I looked closely at the provenance, because it wasn’t one of the usual places you might find artwork like this. It turned out to have been part of an estate sale purchased by a bookseller. It’s believed to be from early in Robert Timmis’ artistic career, and seems to have spent the last 100 years or more in a house near his hometown of Leek. I was able to buy the untitled watercolour, which is now framed and proudly displayed in a home in Australia.

Artist and art teacher

Robert’s occupation varies in official records. In the 1911 census he’s a portrait painter. Whereas the 1915 attestation form in his British Army Service record says he was an artist, and a later form in the same file says he was an art master.

In fact in 1907 Robert, who had been studying at the Leek School of Art, was awarded a scholarship to the Allan Fraser Art College, Hospitalfield, in Arbroath which was Scotland’s first residential school of art. It’s likely this is how he met Elizabeth whose family lived in Arbroath. Then between 1913 and 1950, he was a teacher at the Liverpool School of Art, while working on his own pieces.

Style and exhibitions

Robert painted a variety of subjects, with many scenes of everyday life where he lived in Liverpool, as well as still life paintings. I’ve been fortunate to also see two beautiful family portraits he painted, one of his wife Elizabeth in her younger years, and one of her with their two children.

Robert was part of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London five times. The paintings exhibited were: The Marauders (1929), Fares (1930), Cupid’s Garden, (1931), The Crossing (1936) and Primula (1956). In late 2002, more than 40 years after his death, a retrospective exhibition of Robert’s work was held at the University of Liverpool Art Gallery and Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead. One of his pieces, The Rose of Mossley Hill which was painted in the 1930s, is currently on display at the Museum of Liverpool.

I’m pleased to have learned a little about Robert Timmis, his art, and connection to my family; and to be able to enjoy a small piece of his work in Australia.

Selected references

‘Robert Timmis 1886-1960’, Art UK, https://artuk.org/discover/artists/timmis-robert-18861960, accessed 8 June 2025.

‘Robert Timmis (1886-1960)’, Chris Beetles Gallery, https://www.chrisbeetles.com/artist/676/robert-timmis, accessed 8 June 2025.

‘The Rose of Mossley Hill’, National Museums Liverpool, https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/rose-of-mossley-hill, accessed 8 June 2025.

‘Annual Meeting of the Nicholson Institute, Leek.’, Staffordshire Sentinel, 15 April 1907, p. 2.

‘Royal Academy Exhibition. Some Work by Northern Artists.’, Yorkshire Post, 20 May 1929, p. 14.

‘Local Artists at R.A.’, Liverpool Echo, 29 April 1930, p. 10.

‘Royal Academy Exhibition. Northern Artists’ Work.’, Yorkshire Post, 8 May 1931, p. 8.

‘The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769-2018’, Royal Academy Chronicle, https://chronicle250.com/, accessed 8 June 2025.