Bateman, Robert 1842 - 1922

Robert Bateman was born at Biddulph Grange in Biddulph, Staffordshire, England on 12 August 1842 and attended Brighton College in Brighton College in Brighton, Sussex from 1855 to 1860. He received lessons in painting from the marine artist Edward Wiliiam Cooke (1811-1880) and travelled with him on a sketching tour of Spain and North Africa in 1860-61, before entering the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1865 [or 1863 - sources differ] which he left in 1867. He subsequently worked as a painter, architect, horticultural designer, sculptor and illustrator.

His work as a painter was evidently influenced by Renaissance art and by the work of Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) who was a friend.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1871, 1876, 1878, 1879 and 1889; Dudley Gallery in London every year from 1866 to 1874; the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1882, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887 and 1888; and at the Baillie Gallery and Grafton Gallery in London, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. He was a member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society and also participated in their exhibitions at the New Gallery in London in 1888 and 1889. He was a founder member the Society of Painters in Tempera in 1901.

It is not known what training Bateman received as an architect. His only known work is Collyers, a house near Petersfield. In the 1870s he contributed illustrations to The People's Magazine and drew illustrations for A Plea for Art in the House by W. J. Loftie (London: Macmillan, 1876).

In 1883 he married Caroline Octavia Howard (1839-1922) with whom he sometimes collaborated including in the 1888 exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at which they showed a panel in silk on linen, designed by Robert Bateman and worked by her, and a bowl in light wood with a black and incised design.

Bateman's address was given as 21 Wigmore Street, London in 1865 and 1869;15 Duke Street, Manchester Square, London in 1871; 9 Hyde Park Square, London in 1871 and 1879; and 23 Crawford Street, London in 1889. He later lived at Benthall Hall, near Much Wenlock in Shropshire. From 1906 they lived at Nunnery Delamere, near Frome in Somerset.  He died in Frome, Somerset, on 11 August 1922