John Robertson Fine Paintings

When my daughter started school she was asked by her classmates what her father did. She answered "He looks at pictures". To which they replied " That's not a proper job!"
Now seventy, pensionable and over forty thousand pictures later, I am intensely aware of just how fortunate I have been to have indulged a life long passion, married, raised a family, bought a house, receive a pension and yet never had a proper job!
I started by failing my degree not once but twice. My supportive parents in Northumberland assumed I was hard at work studying the History of Art as an external student of London University.
What I was actually doing was enjoying life in the "Swinging Sixties"... attending Vietnam War demonstrations, hanging out at The Alexander Palace "Technicolour Dream Shows" and running a stall on the Portobello Road... I'd sell anything I could lay my hands on during the week, scouring the numerous junk shops in Ealing, Acton and Hanwell. What I really wanted was to be an artist myself!
After four wasted but formative years I emerged into the real world unemployed, unqualified and pennyless. It was at this low point that I had the great good fortune to meet Ian Read, a successful businessman and picture collector. We opened the Bourne Gallery together in 1971. He was sufficiently trusting to give me enough rope to hang myself with and the rest as they say is history.
It was our privilege over the years to sell to many hundreds of collectors and to place many pictures with Public Galleries and Institutions. These included:
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The British Museum
The Gray Art Gallery
Northwich Salt Museum
Exeter Museum
The Paul Mellon Foundation
Vestry House Museum, Essex
Colchester Museum
Hampshire Museum Services
Guildford House Museum
The National Museum of Scotland
The Museum of London
Londonderry Art Gallery
Poole Library
The Palace of Westminster
The National Library of Wales
Royal Devonshire Regimental Museum
The Worshipful Company of Butchers
The Guildhall Art Gallery, London
The Courtauld Gallery, London
The Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey
The Panett Gallery, Whitby
York City Art Gallery
The Courtauld Gallery, London