In the late 1930s, Colquhoun was awarded the GSA's £120
travelling bursary. However, knowing that Colquhoun would split or
share the money with MacBryde, the Chairman of the Governors at the
school - Sir John Richmond - gave an equal sum to MacBryde out his
own funds. The Two Roberts set out to travel and study together in
France and Italy until the outbreak of WWII saw them return, where
they settled in London.
In the bohemian urban centre of London, where they were renowned
for their parties, the Two Roberts courted a large circle of
friends, including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Elizabeth Smart,
George Barker, and Dylan Thomas. The pair also lived with artist
John Minton, and after 1943, Jankel Adler. Adler became MacBryde
and Colquhoun's mentor, and the Polish artist's Cubist influence
can be seen in both of their work - for a time MacBryde was even
nicknamed 'MacBraque' after Georges Braque.
MacBryde and Colquhoun rarely tended to work together up until
this point, both preferring full control while consulting the other
from time to time. However, the two did like to collaborate on
theatrical design, including creating
pieces for Leonide Massine's ballet Donald of the
Burthens in 1951.
While in London, MacBryde and Colquhoun became sell-out
sensations after solo exhibitions at the Lefevre Gallery,
MacBryde's in 1943. A period of success followed, and 'The Golden
Boys of Bond Street' reigned in glory during the 1940s. With their
housemates Adler and Minton, they were infamous for their studio
parties in London's Bedford Gardens. However with their success
came the doubling down of bad habits - for The Two Roberts, their
vice was alcohol. Friend Anthony Cronin in Dead as
Doornails (1976) writes that "MacBryde had […] a capacity
to abandon himself gently and totally to the drink, so that in the
right company he achieved incandescence". Yet this luminescence
burned into The Two Roberts' finances, and paired with the
particular bad luck of their agent dropping dead, their stars began
to wane as the years flashed into the 1950s.
The two were eventually evicted from their studio, and they
relocated to Essex to look after the children of Elizabeth Smart
and her partner George Barker, who offered them lodgings as a
gesture of friendship. In 1962, Colquhoun succumbed to his years of
hard drinking, followed four years later by MacBryde, who had moved
to Dublin.
Despite their relative obscurity after their flash in the 1940s
as 'the Golden Boys of Bond Street', in more recent years their
legacy has saw them as two of the most influential artists of their
generation.
