AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Card Players + studies

Illustration © The Estate of John David Roberts. Reproduced with the permission of the William Roberts Society. Catalogue information based on the catalogue raisonné by David Cleall. For this and full details of the exhibitions cited, see the links below. Any auction prices quoted may not include all fees and taxes, such as VAT and Artist's Resale Right charges.

(recto) Card Players – study, c.1934
Pencil, 17.5 cm x 17 cm
(verso) Beach Scene, Paddling

EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (as Card Players)

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The Card Players -- study

The Card Players – study, c.1934
Pencil, 16.5 cm x 35.6 cm
Inscribed top left in margin, ‘Remaining half of long panel 1 1/2" to 1'’

PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12727)
EXHIBITION HISTORY (as The Card Players): Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

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The Intellectuals

The Card Players – study (aka Intellectuals), c.1934
Watercolour and gouache, 16 cm x 35 cm, signed top right corner

PROVENANCE (as Intellectuals): Redfern Gallery > Edward Le Bas (1942) > ? > Christie’s 3 Mar. 1978 (£650)
EXHIBITION HISTORY (as Intellectuals): Redfern Gallery 1942 (sold for 15 gns), Royal Academy Diploma Gallery 1963

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The Card Players, c.1934
Red chalk over pencil, squared, 25.5 cm x 54.5 cm

This highly finished drawing and its associated studies (also known as Intellectuals) and what is evidently a companion series entitled Bohemians / Music Lovers seem to have been intended to lead to two large decorative panels: annotations in the margin of one of the Bohemians studies suggest that an eventual size of about 140 x 290 cm was envisaged, comparable with that of The Gutter, carried out around the same time. However, the project never progressed beyond the highly finished drawings. The titles Bohemians and Intellectuals were evidently meant sardonically – each is at variance with the content of the picture to which it is applied – and possibly a dig at members of the Bloomsbury Group was intended.
PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper (before 1949) > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (as Card Game, £5,149)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (as Cards, 15 gns), Bradford 1939 (as The Card Game, £20), Redfern Gallery 1942 (as A Game of Cards), Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (as Card Players), Worthing 1972 (as The Card Game)
REPRODUCED: Ernest Cooper printed the image in colour on a large-format postcard