Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart) Cust

Born in Hythe, Kent, in 1861 and later dying in Hampstead in 1940, Robert Henry Hobart Cust was a British art historian, writer, and translator best remembered for his studies of Italian Renaissance art. Sources describe him as an early scholar of Sodoma and of Siena, and note that he was educated at Eton before studying at Cambridge and Oxford.

Cust wrote extensively on Italian subjects, with works including The Pavement Masters of Siena, a study of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (Sodoma), Botticelli, and Benvenuto Cellini. He also produced a translation of Cellini's autobiography, showing the same interest in bringing Renaissance lives and artworks to a wider English-speaking audience.

Archival records at the National Gallery show that his research was grounded in travel, correspondence, notes from galleries and archives, and a long-running engagement with Renaissance painting. He was also a member of the Burlington Fine Arts Club and contributed articles to The Burlington Magazine, placing him within the lively art-historical world of his time.