Wednesday 16 February 2011

Artist Rob Roy

Rob Roy (née Richard de la Rivière) was an artist born in Mont-de-Marsan in the south west of France in 1909.

From an early age, he had his father’s passion for motorized vehicles and art. He developed a talent of accurately and vividly documenting the events around him with his art, which was mostly motor racing. Between the wars, he did his watercolours, and at times, managed to also do some racing.

Grand Prix de Monaco 1935
Mercedes W25 & Alfa Romeo P3

He captured the racers of the time, Nuvolari, Varzi, Chiron, Caracciola, Ascari, Fagioli, Sommer, Dreyfus, and so on, his watercolours portraying their tight battles of the tracks of Europe.

Coupe Internationale des Voiturettes, Le Mans 1920
Bugatti Type 13 & Fiat

Prior to World War II, Rob Roy had joined to army, so when the war started, he joined the 3rd Tank Battalion. He was captured but later managed to escape. He kept a diary and did art-pieces of his war experiences, which have recently been published as a book “Carnet de guerre de Rob Roy 1939 à 1944.”

Mille Miglia 1936 
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza

After the war, he worked in the automobile industry, and continued to do art for advertisements, brochures, magazines, books and posters.

He stayed involved with his motor racing friends and doing his motor racing art until his passing 1992.

Recently, I was lucky enough to find three Rob Roy prints locally for my racing automobilia collection; they are wonderful records of racing past.

You can find out more on Rob Roy at this website: http://www.art-robroy.com/index_en.htm

6 comments:

Art Tidesco said...

Excellent blog to go with a cool find Paul :-)

Rick Swain said...

Where the heck do you find that kind of stuff locally in Nova Scotia!?

Automobiliart.com said...

Hi Rick
It actually found me!
Cheers!

Tim said...

Good evening Automobiliart,

A good friend has died leaving us a signed Rob Roy print from 1950. Your site has come up under Google search & wondered if you might be interested? Please let me know if you would like me to email a photo.

Regards, Tim Soar.

Tim said...

Good evening Automobiliart,

I have a signed Rob Roy print from 1950 inherited from a friend which I wondered if you might be interested in. You came up high on Google & thought it worth sending you a comment. Let me know if you want a photo and are interested.

Regards,

Tim

Tim Soar

Automobiliart.com said...

Tim
Yes, please send me a photo of the print. It would be helpful to also have a list of all the text info (printing info) included on the print; that will help authenticate it.
Please email it to paul.chenard@hotmail.com
Thanks for contacting me.
Cheers!