Kitson, Robert Hawthorn (British painter, 1873-1947)

Robert Kitson was the son of G.H. Kitson of Elmet Hall, Roundhay, Leeds. The Kitson family business was locomotive engineering, but Robert Kitson became an artist (mainly in the medium of watercolour), exhibiting regularly at the Leeds Fine Arts Club, the Royal Academy, and the Society of British Artists. He was a pupil and friend of Alfred East, R.A., and it was through East that he met Sir Frank Brangwyn and became his friend and patron, commissioning a number of works, most notably the mosaic cycle for the apse of St. Aidan's Church in Roundhay. For health reasons, Kitson settled in Sicily and designed his own villa, the Casa Cuseni in Taormina, which he was forced to abandon after the outbreak of the Second World War; he returned there shortly before his death in 1947

From the guide to the Papers and sketchbooks of Robert Kitson, ca.1896-1983, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)