The Two Roberts The new novel from author and broadcaster Damian Barr tells the story of painters Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, who met on their first day at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in 1933 and went on to become workmates and lovers. Working class Scottish kids – MacBryde, from Maybole, was the son of a labourer, Kilmarnock-born Colquhoun was at GSA on a scholarship – they were openly gay and for a time were at the centre of a buzzing London art scene which included Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.