A couple of years ago a good friend and fellow Baxter collector, Robert from Swansea, very kindly gave me a book about the Welsh artist Will Roberts saying that there is something in there that might be of interest to me.

Will Roberts was born in 1907 in Ruabon, near Wrexham, North Wales. In 1918 the family moved to Neath in South Wales, where he was to settle for the rest of his life. In 1928, encouraged by his mother, he won a scholarship to the Swansea School of Art, and later in life became an RCA, a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy based at Conwy. He died in Neath on 11 March 2000.

His style is stated as Expressionism which is explained as an "artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person". Please see the sample images to see for yourself. He exhibited regularly over 55 years including, on many occasions, at the Royal Academy summer exhibitions.

So why am I writing about a well documented 20th century Welsh expressionist painter?

His subject matter was broad, portraits, religious subjects and scenic views but one in the book stands out as completely different in style and composition and of interest to us. Plate 71 is titled ‘G W Baxter’s printing works, Lewes, Sussex 1973’, the date being the date of completion, the drawing states the title and the date as 1843 and is described as in ‘Pen & Ink’.

Apart from the fact that it is slightly wrongly titled ‘G W Baxter…’ rather than presumably W E Baxter… it is unmistakeably Baxter’s fathers and later his brother’s printing works having the words ‘Sussex Express’ emblazoned across the front of two of the buildings. The Sussex Agricultural Express was the newspaper founded by George and William’s father John Baxter in 1837 which later changed its name to just Sussex Express.

I remembered seeing an ‘identical’ engraving described as ‘Baxter’s Birthplace’ in ‘The Centenary Baxter Book’ published by Clarke and Rylatt in 1936. That book doesn’t state where the image is from but it is obviously an earlier engraving as under the print, in an old style font, is ‘Lewes Sussex’. That earlier engraving makes no mention of Baxter’s printing works, apart from having Sussex Express showing on the building, or show the date of 1843. So, did Roberts have another source for the image that stated (GW) Baxter’s works and the date or did he copy it directly from The Centenary Baxter Book?

So why did an expressionist 20th century Welsh painter sketch a location on the other side of the country set some 130 years earlier and in a style that is so in opposition to his normal style of work? I did approach the editor of the book via the publisher, The National Library of Wales and also a large auction house who had sold a substantial amount of his work a few years earlier to see if they knew of any reason why Roberts might have drawn such a subject, but to no avail. Perhaps someone may be able to give us some insight?

It would be nice to think that perhaps he was just a fan or a collector of Baxter Prints.