The tragic tale of the Two Roberts is a story of two artists cut off in their prime

In 1933, two new students met on their first day at Glasgow School of Art. From then on they were inseparable. They lived and worked together. They became lovers. They stayed together throughout their lives. They shone at art school, then came to London, where their robust paintings soon became very fashionable. Yet a few years later, just as quickly, their work fell out of favour. They became increasingly impoverished, dependent on friends for bed and board, but they never stopped painting — or loving one another. They were both prolific drinkers. By 1966, they were both dead.

The biography of Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde is so compelling that, even if their work had only been so-so, it’d still be a tale worth telling, a story of fickle fashion and the enduring power of true love. However, as this gripping retrospective proves, their paintings were remarkable — muscular, unsentimental and utterly unique.