Robin Boyd - Background and Early Life

Background and Early Life

Robin Boyd was a scion of the illustrious Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, and many of his extended family were noted painters, sculptors, architects, writers or other arts professionals. Robin was the younger son of the painter Penleigh Boyd, and his own son, named after his grandfather Penleigh, is also an architect. He was a nephew of author Martin Boyd and a first cousin of famed Australian painter Arthur Boyd and his brothers David Boyd and Guy Boyd (founders of the Martin Boyd Pottery studio) and his first commission, in fact, was a backyard studio for Arthur Boyd. Robin's cousin Joan (Weigall) Lindsay (author of Picnic at Hanging Rock) married Daryl Lindsay, who became curator of the National Gallery of Victoria and was the brother of artist Lionel Lindsay and renowned artist and author Norman Lindsay.

Robin's Queensland-born mother, Edith Susan Gerard Anderson, was herself a skilled painter who also came from a prominent family. Her father had been Director of the Queensland Department of Public Instruction, her brother Arthur was a well-known physician, and her eldest sister Maud was of one of the first women to graduate with a B.A. degree from the University of Sydney and is thought to have been Queensland's first female university graduate.

Robin Boyd and his older brother Pat spent their early childhood at "The Robins", the family home and studio that his father had built on land he purchased at Warrandyte, near Melbourne but in 1922 Penleigh sold "The Robins" and moved his family to Sydney. Soon after arriving, he was enlisted by Sydney Ure Smith as one of the organisers of a major exhibition of contemporary European art. Penleigh took his family with him to England late in the year to pick paintings; he returned to Sydney without them in June 1923 to set up the exhibition, which was staged in Sydney and Melbourne during July–August. During his wife's absence Penleigh had a brief affair with another woman but shortly before his family returned from England he bought back "The Robins" and purchased a new car.

Edith, Pat and Robin returned to Australia on 23 November 1923, but Penleigh and Edith had a heated argument soon after the homecoming. A few days later, for reasons unknown, Penleigh left Melbourne to drive to Sydney in the company of another person, but he lost control of the vehicle on a sharp bend near Warragul and it overturned. The passenger survived but Penleigh suffered terrible injuries and died at the scene within minutes. The proceeds of Penleigh's estate—including the sale of "The Robins", the repaired car and about 40 paintings, plus an annual allowance from Penleigh's father, and a small inheritance from her own father—enabled Edith Boyd to support her sons without needing to work, even during the depths of the Depression.

After Penleigh's death Edith and the boys lived for a time in rented premises in Toorak and Robin's first two years of schooling were at Glamorgan Preparatory School. Edith bought a modest house in East Malvern in 1927, when Robin was enrolled at the nearby Lloyd Street State School. As a schoolboy he read widely and became an avid fan of films and jazz music. In 1930 he moved on to the Malvern Church of England Grammar School, where he completed his schooling. He sat for his Leaving Certificate in 1934 and although he failed one subject (Commercial Principles) at the first attempt, he passed that the following year. He had evidently decided quite early on architecture as his chosen career so his mother arranged for him to be articled to leading Melbourne architect Kingsley Henderson. He served in Papua-New Guinea during World War II and resumed his architectural career in 1945.