Stanislawa de Karlowska (Mrs. Robert Bevan) by Harold

Stanislawa de Karlowska (Mrs. Robert Bevan) by Harold Gilman 1913
Polish born Karlowska married Bevan shortly after meeting each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. Although Karlowska was not a member of the Fitzroy Street or Camden Town Groups, she was friends with many of the members and inspired portraits by Gilman and Gore. She went on to exhibit with the London Group for many decades after her election in January 1914. The Bevan family lived at number 14 Adamson Road, Belsize Park London.
Her son recalls: ‘It was certainly a marriage for love, and she proved to be the best kind of wife he could have chosen. She had considerable beauty and charm, and, while she was far from being an intellectual, she had a natural and endearing vivacity which helped to counteract my father’s dislike of asserting himself in unfamiliar company. Her unquestioning confidence in him and her outspoken pride in his work were not shaken for the rest of his life by his uncommunicativeness and long withdrawals into himself. I once asked him, when I found he had destroyed a picture I had greatly admired, whether he was ever completely discouraged by his lack of success with critics and collectors. He answered to this effect: ‘Your mother, of course, thinks I am a great artist. I don’t know about that, but I am sure that I could not go on without believing that I had done some good work and was capable of better. She, too, has always complained of the amount of work I destroy; but it is easy to exercise that kind of self-criticism when work is left unsold on your hands. That she has always shown such confidence has always meant a very great deal to me.’