AN ENGLISH CUBIST




William Roberts:

Bibliography



Illustrations © The Estate of John David Roberts. Reproduced with the permission of the William Roberts Society.


[Last revised 23 October 2021]

Writings by William Roberts


'Portrait of the Artist', Art News and Review, 5 November 1949

The Vortex Pamphlets 1956–1958 (London, January 1958), comprising five articles, the first four of which were originally issued as separate pamphlets:
  1. The Resurrection of Vorticism and the Apotheosis of Wyndham Lewis at the Tate (London, August 1956)
  2. Cometism and Vorticism - A Tate Gallery Catalogue Revised (London, August 1956)
  3. A Press View at the Tate Gallery (London, October 1956)
  4. A Reply to My Biographer Sir John Rothenstein (London, February 1957)
  5. Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism (London, January 1958)

The Vortex Pamphlets
'Wyndham Lewis, the Vorticist', The Listener, 21 March 1957

Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work 1913–1920 (London, 1957); preface reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'William Roberts and Vorticism's Year'

My 'Trooping the Colour' and the 'Errors' of the Daily Mail (Broadsheet: London, 6 May 1959); reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990)

Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts ARA (London, 1960); preface reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'Publicity'

William Roberts ARA Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964 (London, 1964); preface reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'Comments'

8 Cubist Designs (London, 1969); preface reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'Cubism and After'

Fame or Defame: A Reply to Barrie Sturt-Penrose (Folded leaflet: London, 1971); reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990)

In Defence of English Cubists (Pamphlet: London, February 1974); reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990)

Postscript (to the English Cubists pamphlet) (Leaflet: London, April 1974); reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990)

Memories of the War to End War 1914–18 (London, 1974); reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as '4.5 Howitzer Gunner Royal Field Artillery 1916-1918: Memories of the War to End War 1914-1918'

The English Cubists at the Hotel de la Tour Eiffel (Revised title printed on a reproduction of the painting, 1974)

Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts R.A. (London: 1976); preface reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'Commentary'

Early Years (written September 1977). Published posthumously, 1982; reprinted in Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990) as 'A Sketch of His Early Life'

Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990), ed. John David Roberts. In addition to reprinting the items indicated above, this includes the following:

Archive material


The Tate archive holds a collection of as-yet uncatalogued archive material relating to William Roberts which was recovered from his home after the death of his son, John David Roberts, in 1995. For a brief outline of this material, see here.


Works discussing William Roberts and his family


The standard monograph on the artist is now Andrew Gibbon Williams, William Roberts: An English Cubist (London: Lund Humphries, 2004). Other works discussing Roberts and/or his family include the following:

Abstract Art in England 1913–1915 (London: d'Offay Couper Gallery, 1969)

Alley, Ronald, 'Roberts, William Patrick', in The Dictionary of National Biography: 1971–1980, ed. Lord Blake and C. S. Nicholls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986)

Alley, Ronald, 'Roberts, William Patrick (1895–1980)', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

——, William Roberts, A.R.A., Retrospective Exhibition (London: Arts Council, 1965)

Antliff, Mark, and Greene, Vivien, The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World (London: Tate Publishing, 2011)
Researchers

Researchers (pencil and watercolour), 1970

Artmonsky, Ruth, Slade Alumni 1900–1914 (London: Artmonsky Arts, 2001)

Artmonsky, Ruth, 'William Roberts – the Tortoise', in exhibition catalogue: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer: The Tortoise and the Hare (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2003)

Backemeyer, Sylvia (ed.), Making Their Mark: Art, Craft and Design at the Central School, 1896–1966 (London: Herbert Press, 2000)

Beckett, Alison. 'The Uncommunicative Artist', Punch, 7 April 1989

Beckett, Jane, 'William Roberts', in The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of British Art, ed. David Bindman (London: Thames and Hudson, 1985)

Berger, John, 'Artists Who Struggle: William Roberts', in Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing (London: Methuen, 1969)

Berryman, Larry, 'William Roberts, Albemarle Gallery', Arts Review, 21 April 1989

Black, Jonathan; Adams, Christopher; Walsh, Michael; and Wood, Jonathan, Blasting The Future! Vorticism in Britain 1910–1920 (London: Philip Wilson, 2004)

Bone, Muirhead, foreword to exhibition catalogue: Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts (London: Chenil Galleries, 1923)

Bonnett, Stanley, 'Trooping of the Colour Errors', Daily Mail, 1 May 1957

Brown, Malcolm (ed.), The Letters of T. E. Lawrence (London: Dent, 1988; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)

Burr, James 'The Neglected British Léger' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), Apollo, December 1965, pp. 510–11

Cayzer, Elizabeth, Exhibition catalogue: William Roberts, R.A. 1895–1980: A Retrospective Exhibition (London: Maclean Gallery, 1980)

——, 'William Roberts's Portraits', the 2002 William Roberts Lecture, given at the National Portrait Gallery, London, on 2 February 2002

Checkland, Sarah Jane, 'Chronicle of a Marriage', The Times, 21 July 1984

Cleall, David, 'The 1965 Roberts retrospective', William Roberts Society Newsletter, April 2015

——, 'An English Cubist in Europe', William Roberts Society Newsletter, January 2014

——, 'The First German Gas Attack at Ypres ', William Roberts Society Newsletter, October 2014

——, William Roberts in the 'Atomic Age': Publicity, Patronage and Paranoia (Tenby: William Roberts Society, 2014)

——, ' William Roberts, At the Hippodrome (aka The Gods) and the London Group ', in Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson (eds.), Uproar! The First 50 Years of The London Group 1913–63 (London: Ben Uri and Lund Humphries, 2013)

——, 'William Roberts, The Birth of Venus', in Christie's London, Modern British Art, 10 July 2013 (lot 26)

——, 'William Roberts, The Bowling Alley ', in Christie's London, Modern British and Irish Art, 20 November 2013 (lot 7)

——, 'William Roberts, Cockneys ', in Christie's London, Modern British and Irish Art, 20 November 2013 (lot 6)

——, 'William Roberts, In the Straight', in Sotheby's London, Modern and Post-War British Art, 10 May 2012 (lot 115)

——, 'William Roberts, Masked Revels ', in Christie's London, 20th Century British and Irish Art, 23 May 2012 (lot 15)

——, 'William Roberts, Modernism and Dance', William Roberts Society Newsletter, January 2015

——, 'William Roberts, The Poor Family', Christie's London, Modern British and Irish Art, 12 December 2012 (lot 35)

——, 'William Roberts's Vorticist drawing Boxers', in Sotheby's London, Modern and Post-War British Art, 10 May 2012 (lot 1)

Coleridge, Marieta, 'William Roberts', 15 February 1999

Commemorative exhibition Sir Michael Sadler Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds 1911–1923 (Leeds Art Gallery, 6 December 1962 to 10 January 1963)

Contemporary Art Society reports, 1911 to June 1924

Colin Cooper, 'A Poet and His Music' (an appreciation of John David Roberts), Classical Guitar, vol. 17, no. 1 (September 1998)

——, 'Sarah Roberts' (obituary), Classical Guitar, vol. 11, no. 6 (February 1993)

Cork, Richard, 'Alone in a Crowd' (review of 2004 Hatton Gallery exhibition), New Statesman, 3 May 2004

——, Art Beyond The Gallery in Early 20th Century England (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985)

——, A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994)

——, 'A Blast from the Past' (a response to WR's A Defence of English Cubists), Evening Standard, 28 March 1974

——, Bomberg (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987)

——, 'Family Still-life', The Listener, 6 September 1984

——, 'Hermit with a Human Touch' (review of 'William Roberts. An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings' at the Michael Parkin Gallery), Evening Standard, 2 December 1976

——, 'Roberts, William', in The Dictionary of Art, vol. 26, ed. Jane Turner (London: Macmillan, 1996)

——, Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age (London: Gordon Fraser, 2 vols., 1976)

——, Vorticism and Its Allies (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1974)

Craven, Tim, 'William Roberts, The Revolt in the Desert ', William Roberts Society Newsletter, January 2012

Davenport, Bob, 'The Chess Players: A Chequered Response', William Roberts Society Newsletter, September 2012

——, 'Fallen Humanity Offends Council' (The Garden of Eden in Southport, 1928), William Roberts Society Newsletter, September 2012

Doherty, Charles Edward, 'Nash, Nevinson and Roberts at War: A Catalogue Raisonné', unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1989

Edwards, Paul, Vorticism 1914–18 (Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2000)

Elliot, Patrick, 'The Watt Bequest', Scottish Art Review, 1991

Feaver, William, 'Modular Men and Artistic Apes', The Observer, 5 October 1980

'First World War 277-6 William Roberts 1918–1950' (MS., Department of Art, Imperial War Museum)

Forge, Andrew, 'William Roberts at the Tate', New Statesman, 26 November 1965

Freyberg, Annabel, '£3M Race to Save British Painter's Rare Legacy', Evening Standard, 25 May 2001

Gaunt, W., 'W. P. Roberts', Drawing and Design, 2, 7 (January 1927), pp. 1–5

Gibson, Robin, Introduction to exhibition catalogue: William Roberts: An Artist and His Family (London: National Portrait Gallery, 1984)

Glazebrook, Mark, Introduction to exhibition catalogue: William Roberts R.A.: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours 1910–1978 (London: Albemarle Gallery, 1989)

Glover, Michael, 'Insight into a Nosey Parker' (review of 2007 Chichester exhibition), Financial Times, 14 February 2007

——, 'Through the Looking-Glass' (review of 2004 Hatton Gallery retrospective), The Independent, 26 March 2004

Gordon, Alastair, 'Art in the Modern Manner' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), The Connoisseur, December 1965

Harries, Meiron and Susie, The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century (London: Michael Joseph, 1983)

Harrison, Charles, English Art and Modernism 1900–1939 (London: Allen Lane, 1981)

Heard, Andrew, William Roberts (1895–1980) (Newcastle upon Tyne: Hatton Gallery, 2004)

Hendy, Philip, 'Art – William Roberts' (review of the 1935 Lefevre Gallery Roberts exhibition), London Mercury, March 1935

Hickling, Alfred, 'William Roberts' (review of the 2004 Hatton Gallery retrospective), The Guardian, 24 March 2004

Howell, Sarah, 'Private View', Observer Magazine, 22 July 1984

Hudson, Mark, 'Lost Treasures of the British Picasso', Daily Telegraph, 13 January 2007

Hutton, Marion, Sarah and John Roberts: The Years after Bobby (Tenby; privately published, 1997)

Janusczak, Waldemar, 'NPG Exhibition Review', The Guardian, 31 July 1984

Jason, Nevill 'Images of Life', Antique Dealer and Collectors Guide, September 1988 ('examines the role of marketing (and its absence) in the career of William Roberts')

Katz, Agi, 'Mischief of the Muse' (obituary of Sarah Roberts), The Guardian, 9 December 1992

Kennedy, Maev, 'Crown Keeps Vorticist's Work off the Wall', The Guardian, 15 March 2004

Konody, P. G., 'Review of Chenil Exhibition', Daily Mail, 9 November 1923

——, 'Roberts's Robots' (review of Chenil exhibition), The Observer, 18 Nov. 1923

Lawrence, T. E., The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, selected and edited by Malcolm Brown (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991)

Laws, Frederick, 'Domestic Cubist' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), The Guardian, 24 November 1965

Leonard, Zachary R., 'William Roberts: Portraiture of the 1920s', unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of Buckingham, 2016

Lubbock, Tom, 'Great Works: The Control Room, Civil Defence Headquarters (1941), William Roberts', The Independent, Arts & Books Review, 5 August 2005

——, 'Three Cheers for His Teams' (review of 2007 Chichester exhibition), The Independent, 22 January 2007

Lynton, Norbert, Picturing People: British Figurative Art since 1945 (London: British Council, 1989)

Malvern, Sue, Modern Art, Britain and the Great War (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004)

Mayes, W. P., 'The Origins of an Art Collection' (MS., Department of Art, Imperial War Museum 1961)

'Mr. William Roberts' (review of Chenil Galleries exhibition), The Times, 9 November 1923

'Mr. William Roberts' (review of Cooling Galleries exhibition), The Times, 30 October 1931

'Mr William Roberts' (obituary), The Times, 30 January 1980

Mullaly, Terence, 'Pictures with Emotions: One-Man Show by William Roberts', Daily Telegraph, 11 February 1958

——, 'William Roberts' Works Make Forceful Exhibition' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), Daily Telegraph, 6 December 1965

Neve, Christopher, 'About Time: William Roberts: Self-Portraits and Family Portraits, Country Life, 30 August 1984

Oldham, Alison, 'Get an Insight into How This Artist Lived' (article on 2007 Chichester exhibition and 'artist's house' page of website), Hampstead & Highgate Express, 15 March 2007

Parkin, Michael, 'Sarah Roberts' (obituary), The Independent, 5 December 1992

Paucker, Pauline, 'Mr Roberts's Palette' [about WR's house], The World of Interiors, January 2003, pp. 98–103

——, 'Sarah [Roberts] (1900–1922)', in exhibition catalogue: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer: The Tortoise and the Hare (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2003)

——, Sarah: An Anecdotal Memoir of Sarah Roberts, Wife, Model, Muse and Defender of William Roberts RA (Tenby: William Roberts Society, 2012)

——, 'William Roberts: An Artist in the Ranks', William Roberts Society Newsletter, October 2014

Peppin, Brigid, 'Women That a Movement Forgot' (inc. discussion of WR's The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915), Tate etc. 22 (summer 2011)

'Portrait of the Artist No. 10, William Roberts', Worthing Herald, 12 May 1972

'Review of Chenil Galleries Exhibition', Morning Post, 14 November 1923

Roberts, Keith, 'Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), Burlington Magazine, January 1966, pp. 46–7

Rosenthal, Tom (T. G.), 'Blast! It's the Real Thing', The Independent, 25 January 2004

——, 'Plus Ça Change' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), The Listener, 2 December 1965

Ross, Alan, Colours of War: War Art 1939–45 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1983)

Ross, Cathy, Twenties London (London, Philip Wilson for the Museum of London, 2003)

Rothenstein, John, 'William Roberts', in Modern English Painters, Vol. 2: Lewis to Moore (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956; new edition with volume title 'Nash to Bawden', London: Macdonald, 1984)

Rutter, Frank, Evolution in Modern Art: A Study in Modern Painting 1870–1925 (George G. Harrap & Co., 1926)

——, 'A Master of Satire: William Roberts, Cartoons and Portraits', Sunday Times, 17 February 1935

Scrase, David, Introduction to exhibition catalogue: William Roberts RA: Watercolours, Drawings and Etchings (Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, 1985)

'Second World War GP/55/2 William Roberts 1939–1945' (MS., Department of Art, Imperial War Museum)

Sewell, Brian, 'True Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare', Evening Standard, 18 July 2003

Shone, Richard, Bloomsbury Portraits (Oxford: Phaidon 1976)

Spalding, Frances, 'William Roberts: An English Cubist' (book review), Burlington Magazine 147, September 2005, p. 625

Stanford, Eric, Introduction to exhibition catalogue: William Roberts R.A.: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts R.A. 1895–1980 (Reading: Reading Museum and Art Gallery, 1983)

Sturgis, Matthew, 'Roberts and Sickert', William Roberts Society Newsletter, January 2013

Sturt-Penrose, Barrie, 'The Grand Recluses of Art' (William Roberts and Edward Burra), The Observer, 14 February 1971

Sykes, Alan, 'Treasury's Refusal is Bad News for Nation', The Times, 22 March 2004

Sylvester, David, 'Blasting the Bombadier' (review of Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work), New Statesman, 14 December 1957

Talbot, Linda, 'A Great Sharer of Grievances', Hampstead & Highgate Express, 30 March 1990

Tate Gallery Archives, miscellaneous information and newspaper cuttings

Taylor, A. J. P., 'Diary', London Review of Books, 6 December 1984 (recollections by a neighbour of Roberts's in St Mark's Crescent)

Taylor, John Russell, 'An Unknown Saved from Obscurity' (review of 2004 Hatton Gallery retrospective), The Times, 7 April 2004

Thompson, David, 'Rhymed Canvas' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), The Spectator, 26 November 1965

The Times, various mentions and reviews, 1913–

Townsend, Christopher, 'Into the Vortex', Art Monthly 347 (June 2011)

Vaizey, Marina, 'William Roberts, RA' (review of the 1971 Hamet Gallery exhibition), Financial Times, 9 March 1971

——, 'William Roberts' (another review of the 1971 Hamet Gallery exhibition), The Connoisseur, March 1971

Vere, Bernard, '"BLAST SPORT"?: Vorticism, Sport, and William Roberts's Boxers', Modernism/modernity, 24, 2 (April 2017), pp. 349–70

Watney, Simon, 'William Roberts, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sheffield' Burlington Magazine 146, August 2004, pp. 564–6

Wees, William C., Vorticism and the English Avant-Garde (Manchester and Toronto: Manchester University Press and University of Toronto Press, 1972)

Wheeler, Colin, 'Roberts the Vorticist', The Independent, 11 April 1989

Whitford, Frank, 'Portrait of the Modernist as an Old Man' (review of the 1965 Tate Gallery retrospective), Arts Review, 11 December 1965

'William Roberts' (obituary), Daily Telegraph, 31 January 1980

William Roberts: An Artist's View (London: Gillian Jason Gallery, 1990)

William Roberts Society newsletters (earlier issues not available): September 2011, January 2012, May 2012, September 2012, January 2013, May 2013, September 2013, January 2014, May 2014, October 2014, January 2015, April 2015

'William's Watching the Defectives', Hampstead & Highgate Express, 15 May 1992

Williams, Andrew Gibbon, William Roberts: An English Cubist (London: Lund Humphries, 2004)

Wilson, Jeremy, Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T. E. Lawrence (London: Heinemann, 1989)

Wright, Barnaby, 'A Private in the Avant-Garde: The Social Position of the Art of William Roberts', unpublished M.A. thesis, Courtauld Institute, London, 2000

Wright, Jane, 'Blue Plaque Tribute to an Artist Who Captured Camden', Camden New Journal, 30 October 2003

——, 'Home is Where the Art Was', Camden New Journal, 7 August 2003

Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism (London: Tate Gallery, 1956)



Home page | Chronology | Bibliography | Collections | Exhibitions
News | Gallery | Auction results | The artist's house | Contact
List of works illustrated on the site

Catalogue raisonné:
chronological | alphabetical