William Roberts: Catalogue raisonné – alphabetical

AN ENGLISH CUBIST



WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Catalogue raisonné –
alphabetical


researched and compiled by

David Cleall

edited and with
additional research by

Bob Davenport


Last revised 17 March 2024



This version of the catalogue is arranged alphabetically. Double-sided drawings appear twice, under the names of both the recto and the verso, except where these are the same. Works with the same title are arranged by date, studies before oils. Portraits are listed under the surname of the sitter, so that ‘Ernest Cooper, Esq.’ appears under ‘C’. For a version of the catalogue arranged chronologically, click here.

This list demonstrates the scope, scale and themes of William Roberts’s work. It does not attempt to be a definite list of all of his paintings and drawings, but it is hoped it will encourage owners, enthusiasts and researchers to come forward with further information.

Since the majority of William Roberts’s work is not dated, much of the exact chronology is speculative. The main sources of information that have been used are exhibition catalogues, sales catalogues and other publications. The details these provide are often vague, however, with some apparently dated works having been post-dated. When no date is available, I have usually assumed that a painting or drawing has been completed within a short time of its first exhibition. Where I have been able to refer to an image, stylistic development of Roberts’s work gives a clue as to the date of the work, and biographic information on the sitter, purchaser or patron is also helpful.

Titles of works are a further problem. Drawings and watercolours used as studies for an oil painting are often given different titles from the oil painting. Works are often exhibited under more than one title, and on many occasions the same subject is revisited at a later date. Works with similar subject matter seem sometimes to have been confused in exhibitions after Roberts’s death. Also some of the works from the estate of John David Roberts which were accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate in 2007 appear on the Tate website with baldly descriptive titles taken from the police inventory of the works in the Roberts family home after the death of John David Roberts, rather than the titles under which they had previously been exhibited. I have tended to favour the last title used during Roberts’s lifetime.

Measurements are given height before width, in centimetres. Full details of exhibitions mentioned appear on a separate page. Full details of publications listed in short-title form can be found in the bibliography.

Auction prices given are generally as quoted by the auction house concerned, and may not include all fees and taxes, such as VAT and Artist’s Resale Right charges.

From 1925 to 1960 Roberts taught a life class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. During that time he made many life drawings, some of which he kept and some of which were kept by his students (the latter group including drawings made on the edge of students’ own work). Being undated (and unsigned), these drawings are difficult to integrate into the chronology of the catalogue and so are listed at the end.

It would be very helpful if readers would notify me of any inaccuracies that they are aware of.

David Cleall



The information in this catalogue and on the pages linked to it is provided in good faith, but the compiler and editor accept no responsibility for the consequences of any error, and cannot guarantee the authenticity of any work listed.

*


‘Early in life Roberts discovered the narrow range of subjects he wished to represent.’

John Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, Vol. 2: Lewis to Moore

*

‘If subjects taken from War, Rural Life, Modern Town Life, Greek Mythology, Christian Mythology can be called narrow, I would be interested to know Rothenstein’s definition of a wide range.’

William Roberts, A Reply to My Biographer Sir John Rothenstein

*


paintings & drawings

Above: William Roberts’s cover design for his own publication of 1976




4.5 Battery Dug-in, see Battery Preparing to Fire a Salvo, 1918

4.5 Howitzer, c.1924. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 111, with Bathers 1923 and six drawings by Edward Wolfe; £2) > ‘Golding’

4.5 Howitzer (aka Gun Team and The Gunners), c.1924. Oil on canvas, 43 x 33. PROVENANCE: G. F. Savill > Sotheby’s 13 Mar. 1974 (as The Gunners, £4,500) > Sotheby’s 21 May 1986 (as 4.5 Howitzer, £12,650) > private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mayor Gallery 1925, Mayor Gallery 1935, Redfern Gallery 1937 (as Gun Team, 40 gns), Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 46

5.9 Bursting … Down!, 1919 (inscribed). A study for Shell Burst 1919. Pencil, ink and watercolour, squared, 12.8 x 14.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

5.9 Bursting … Down, see Shell Burst, 1919

1943 A.D., 1943? Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Abduction (aka The Rape of a Sabine) c.1955. Black chalk, 14.0 x 8.9. Although twice exhibited as The Rape of a Sabine, this study doesn’t seem to have been used in The Rape of the Sabines 1955–6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (as The Rape of a Sabine), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as The Rape of a Sabine)

Abdulla on a White Mare, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Apparently a preliminary idea for the drawing Dignity in Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, annotated by Roberts, ‘Page 43’. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 49 (part))

Aboard the Lama, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Unused study for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, annotated by Roberts, ‘Page 41’: ‘Waiting off Suez was the Lama, a small converted liner; and in her we left immediately [for Jeddah] … [Ronald] Storrs’ intolerant brain seldom stooped to company. But to-day he was more abrupt than usual. He turned twice around the decks, sniffed, “No one worth talking to”, and sat down in one of the two comfortable armchairs, to begin a discussion of Debussy with Aziz el Masri (in the other)’ (ch. 8). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 25 (part))

Accepted, see Rejected? No, Accepted!, c.1938

Accused, The (aka Not Guilty), 1971. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 25. Cf. The Whole Truth 1978

Acrobats, 1916–17. Pen and wash, 34.7 x 24.3. PROVENANCE: Derby Museum and Art Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Nottingham 1987

Acrobats, The, c.1921. Pencil and watercolour, 18 x 10.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Paris 1921? (as Acrobates), New Grafton Gallery (2) 1975, Parkin Gallery 1976

Acrobats, The, 1940–59 (signed). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18.4 x 10.8. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > ? (1977) > Christie’s South Kensington 14 July 2016 (£7,500). This may be related to Gymnasts c.1943 or the watercolour The Acrobats c.1957.

Acrobats, The, c.1957. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (where dated c.1960)

Acrobats, The, c.1957. Watercolour? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Across the Counter – study, c.1958. Inscribed ‘Across the Counter’. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Across the Counter
, c.1958. Pencil and watercolour, 35.6 x 22.9. This watercolour shows shoppers and sales staff at the counter of a branch of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. Despite the extraordinarily good business that is taking place, Cooper can be seen looking on anxiously from the back doorway. This may have been intended as a gentle satire by Roberts, as Cooper regularly claimed that he could not afford the asking price for Roberts’s paintings and tended to pay by instalments. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Dec. 1998 (£2,645). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972. Cf. Ernest Cooper, Esq. c.1949

Adam and Eve, see Garden of Eden, The, c.1926

Aeroplane Scout, The, March 1919 (signed, dated and inscribed ‘The Aeroplane Scout’ lower right). Pen, ink and wash, 53.5 x 38.3. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society > Dunedin Public Art Gallery, NZ (1954). Records from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery note that the original board bore a label inscribed, ‘RAF scheme drawn by Sir Edward Marsh … No. 22.’ This may have been a misreading and the inscription may have referred to the ‘CAS scheme’, i.e. the Contemporary Art Society. However, the original mounting board is not available for confirmation.

After the Bath, see War Baby, The, 1946

Afternoon in the Park, An, see Heatwave – study, 1957

Alarm – study (aka Chasing Pigeons at Regent’s Canal), 1973 (signed and dated). Watercolour over pencil, squared, 15.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 18 July 1984 (£620)

Alarm, 1973. Oil on canvas, 61 x 57. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Royal Academy 1974. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 37

Algérienne, L’ (Sarah with headscarf), 1962. Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Tate Gallery (T03076, gift by Ernest Cooper, 1980). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1962, Worthing 1972

Almond Gatherers, 1972. Pencil, 13.5 x 18. PROVENANCE: Private collection (USA)

Almond Gatherers, 1972 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 35.4 x 49.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Almond Picking, see Tree Pruners – study, 1972

Amateur and the Professional, The – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 12 x 15.5. The image is of Winston Churchill and Picasso. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Amateur and the Professional, The, 1970 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 35.7 x 46, inscribed ‘For Hamet Gallery’ lower right, beneath the mount. The image is of Winston Churchill (who had died in 1965) and Picasso. It may have been prompted by the publication in late summer 1970 of Time’s Thievish Progress, a third volume of autobiography by
Roberts’s bête noire Sir John Rothenstein, former director of the Tate Gallery, in which a chapter was devoted to consideration of Churchill as a painter. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > private collection, UK (January 1971) > ? (by descent) > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2022 (estimate £30,000–£50,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Ambush – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 18)

Ambush, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘Late in the afternoon came a thrill when the mule-mounted infantry reappeared, heading up-line towards us. They would pass below our ambush, and Zaal and the men were urgent to attack them on the sudden. We were one hundred, they little over two hundred. We had the upper ground, could hope to empty some of their saddles by our first volley, and then would camel-charge upon them’ (ch. 50). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 19). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 201

American, Portrait of an (aka William Wallace), 1929. Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. ‘The sitter was an American book dealer named William Wallace, from Houston, Texas’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (2) 1929, Hamburg 1932 (as Amerikaner), Bradford 1939, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983. REPRODUCED: Studio 94 (1930), p. 245

(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun (aka Machine Gun Factory Detail), 1940. Inscribed with colour notes. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.5
(verso) Two Sketches of Workers in Munitions Factory (aka Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory), 1940. Inscribed ‘Blue Prints’ and ‘Polishing metal edge’. Brown chalk, 17.8 x 12.8
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £500)

(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – studies for Munitions Factory, 1940. Red chalk, 17.7 x 12.5 (L-shaped mount)
(verso) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – four studies for Munitions Factory, 1940. Pencil, 17.7 x 12.5 (L-shaped mount)
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £300)

(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – study for Munitions Factory 1940. Pencil, 18 x 13
(verso) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory– studies, 1940. Brown chalk, 17.5 x 12.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £550)

(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – studies for Munitions Factory, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.5 x 12.5
(verso) Man and Oil Can and Machine Gun, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.7 x 12.7
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £400)

Antony and Cleopatra – study for Antony in Eygpt, c.1929. Pencil, 19.7 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12646). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (8 gns), Reading 1983, Tate Britain 2012.

Antony and Cleopatra, see Antony in Egypt, c.1929

Antony in Egypt – study, see Antony and Cleopatra c.1929

Antony in Egypt (aka Antony and Cleopatra), c.1929. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61. In Act I of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, characters comment on the unmanly life that the Roman triumvir Antony is leading at Cleopatra’s court in Egypt. PROVENANCE: W. H. Stephenson > ? > Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (60 gns), Southport 1951. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964

Apes Are So Intelligent, c.1949. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949. Cf. Roberts’s illustrations for [John] David Roberts, Fantasy for Flute (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942), in one of which intelligent apes are shown observing a caged human

Apes Are So Intelligent, see Keeper of the Apes, 1958

Appeasing a Tumult – study, 1925–6. Pencil; 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 10)

Appeasing a Tumult, 1925–6 (figures bowing down to a standing figure). Pen and ink, 28 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘The night, for hour after hour, was broken by these new-comers challenging round our bivouacs, crying their way to us like lost souls; and, peasant-fashion, slobbering over our hands with protestations that we were their highest lords and they our deepest servants. Perhaps the reception of them fell short of our usual standard; but, in revenge, they were applying the torture of keeping us awake, uneasily awake’ (ch. 113). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 11). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 347

(recto) Apple, The, date unknown, 1940–45? – suggest 1944 (‘study for the background of an Oxford punting picture’ – Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Pencil, 15 x 17.3
(verso) Cows
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Apple Pickers – study, 1936. Pencil, 27.7 x 19.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985? (although the drawing shown there was said to be dated ‘38’ in ballpoint and squared lightly in red chalk)

Apple Pickers – another study, see Orchard, The, 1936

Apple Pickers (aka Apple Picking), 1936. Oil on canvas, 55 x 39.8. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes (bought 1938) > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (50 gns), Cambridge 1983

Arab Feast, 1925-6. Pencil, 16.5 x 15.2. Probably an unused study for a tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, perhaps related to Mucking in. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12652). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Arab Horsemen, see Mahomet’s Ride, c.1967

Arabs and English, 1925– 6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Unused study for a tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 29 (part))

Archers, The – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Archers, The, 1970 (signed and dated ‘Feb 70’). Watercolour and pencil, 48.3 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: Phillips 2 Nov. 1999 (£4,200) > James Hyman Fine Art

Architect, The, c.1937. Watercolour. Possibly the work exhibited as Horace Townsend Esq. (q.v.) in 1938. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Bradford 1939 (£10)

Argument, An – study (aka Two Mothers with Children on a Street Corner), c.1926. Pencil, squared, 26.0 x 21.0. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 12 Nov. 1982 (as Two Mothers with Children on a Street Corner, £1,188)

Argument, An, c.1926. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (1) 1926. REPRODUCED: The Sphere, 13 Nov. 1926

Aria, see Recital, The, c.1944–5

Armistice Day, see Armistice Night, c.1925

Armistice Night (aka Armistice Day), c.1925. Pen, black ink, graphite and watercolour, 40.8 x 37.8. PROVENANCE: Sydney Schiff > Contemporary Art Society (1926) > British Museum (1943). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Edinburgh 1929 (lent by the Contemporary Art Society), Manchester 1930, Arthur Tooth & Sons 1932 (‘The water-colour of William Roberts, “Armistice Night,” is delightful in spirit and design and free from the tubular obsession of all his more recent work. Roberts’s figures bear the same relation to normal human figures that the Scott monument in jam-pots of the well-known advertisement does to the actual structure’ – The Scotsman, 30 Sept. 1932), British Museum 1969, British Museum 1980

Art Auction, The, 1975. Pencil, 20.3 x 14.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12686). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Art Auction, The (aka Auction), 1975 (signed and dated). Watercolour, 50 x 36. PROVENANCE: Wolseley Fine Art. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Art Class, Two Figures, c.1935. Pencil on lined paper torn from a notebook, 10.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Art Critic, P. G. Konody, The, 1920. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. Paul George Konody was born in Budapest in 1872 and educated in Vienna before settling in London in 1889. From 1900 to 1902 he was editor of The Artist, and he was later an art critic for The Observer and the Daily Mail before the First World War. In 1914 he was one of three critics to be ‘blessed’ by Wyndham Lewis in Blast No. 1, and in 1917 he played an important role in Roberts being commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund to paint the large-scale The First German Gas Attack at Ypres in 1918. He died in 1933. This portrait was presumably painted after Roberts’s war-artist work, and when exhibited at the Chenil Gallery in 1923 it was priced at £35. The painting has been in the Konody family since that date, although until recently art historians believed it to have been lost. PROVENANCE: P. G. Konody > Konody family collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 50

Art Dealers Hanging a Masterpiece, see Hanging a Masterpiece – study, 1934

Art Gallery, 1956. Pen and ink, 18 x 12.5. Frontispiece for Roberts, A Press View at the Tate Gallery (Vortex Pamphlet No. 3), showing Wyndham Lewis and Sir John Rothenstein (cf. The Art Gallery 1973). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12730). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Tate Britain 2012

Art Gallery, The– study, 1973. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 15.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: ? (bought from Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 exhibition) > Christie’s 21 Nov. 2019 (£16,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Art Gallery, The, 1973. Oil on canvas, 48.9 x 59.1. ‘The abstract artist, with misted spectacles, ignores the living human beings about thim, whilst they in turn ignore his abstracts’ – John Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12741). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975, Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (ref. design for pamphlet 1956), Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 40

Art Master, The, c.1949? Ink and watercolour, 55 x 45. This work shares a similar theme to The Critic Intervenes c.1948: the critic or teacher imposing his ideas on the artist. The pencil drawing for this watercolour, in the Tate collection, is inscribed with the title ‘The Life Master’. PROVENANCE: Southampton City Art Gallery. Cf. The Life Master c.1949 and No! No! Roger … 1934 and The Critic Intervenes c.1948

Art Student, 1948. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: WR > Rhona Park (Central School of Arts and Crafts) > Court Gallery (2018)

Artist, Portrait of the, 1948 (self-portrait with a paint brush). Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£4,025) > Robert Devereux > Sotheby’s 4 Nov. 2010 (£20,000) > Richard Green. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972 (as no. 1, Self-portrait of the Artist), Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 9

Artist, Portrait of the, see Self-portrait in a Cap, c.1960

Artist, Portrait of the, see Self-portrait with Knotted Handkerchief, 1964

Artist, The, c.1942 Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Artist at an Easel, An, 1930 (signed and dated). Black chalk, 27.2 x 14.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014) (Is the artist Jacob Kramer?)

Artist in the Box. Vignette, date uncertain. Pencil, 14.5 x 9.6. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Artist in a Cemetery, see Don’t ’e know Jarge, tha be no Resurrection, c.1977

(verso, lower half) Artist and Easel – fragment of an abandoned version of The Artist at His Easel with a Painting of John and Sarah, c.1937–8
(recto) Cricket – study, 1938 (also dated c.1936). Pencil, 25 x15
PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery (2001) > ? > Court Gallery (2009) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Woking 2011

(verso, lower half) Artist and Easel – fragment of an abandoned version of The Artist at His Easel with a Painting of John and Sarah, c.1937–8
(recto) Woman on Sofa, Cat and Mirror, date unknown – 1937–8? Pencil, 23 x 17
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986


(recto) Artist and Family at Marston (aka The Family), 1942. ‘Family meal in the kitchen during the second world war. William Roberts has added a pipe, a palette and a couple of canvases’ – note by John Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 catalogue. ‘A drawing by WR of grim humour showing us round the card table which he has placed in the studio with palette and canvas. He has a pipe & a pork pie hat doing duty for a halo, while he drinks his soup. There are saucepans on the floor and table, which S[arah]. would not have permitted. She wears dungarees, which she never did. On a picture in the background is a beautiful nude, her arm encircling WR’s head. I am larger than life with an oafish expression wearing a singlet, which I never did – An instructive drawing that I saw after his death’ – comment in a John Roberts notebook. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 12.8
(verso) Fragment of a female nude life study, c.1942. Red chalk, 17.5 x 12.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Artist with Family Portrait, see Artist at His Easel with a Painting of John and Sarah, The, c.1937–8

Artist with Guitarists, The, see Artist and Models c.1965

Artist at His Easel with a Painting of John and Sarah, The (aka Artist with Family Portrait), c.1937–8. Pencil and red chalk, 27.3 x 16.5. At the National Portrait Gallery in 1984 this was dated to c.1950–55, but as there is a fragment of an abandoned more highly worked version on the verso of the study for a work – Cricket – which is signed and dated 1938, it seems reasonable to suppose that it in fact a rather earlier work. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (where titled Artist with Family Portrait and described as being in pencil only). REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Artist and His Wife, The – study, 1942–3. Pencil, squared, 16.5 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Artist and His Wife, The, 1942–3. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8 (painted at Oxford). PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > Financial Times (before 1984) > Sotheby’s 12 July 2013 (£35,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1947 (£125), Tate Gallery 1964 (where dated 1943), Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Artist and His Wife, The, 1975. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 64.2. PROVENANCE: National Portrait Gallery (NPG 5808). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 117

Artist Looks Ahead, The, 1979? Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1980

Artist and Model, c.1930. Pencil on paper, 17.5 x 11.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (where dated to the 1920s)

Artist and Models – study (aka The Artist with Guitarists), c.1965. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 11.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (as The Artist with Guitarists)

Artist and Models (aka The Artist with Guitarists), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 51.2 x 32.1. Roberts painting his son, John, and wife, Sarah, playing their guitars. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Mrs M. Marks (Feb. 1971) > Phillips 2 Mar. 1999 (estimate £8,000–£12,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (as The Artist with Guitarists)

Artist Painting a Female Nude (aka William Roberts A.R.A. Paintings and Drawings), c.1964. Pen and ink, 15.6 x 10. Printed on yellow on the cover of Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964 – although the painter, with his Teddy-boy haircut, does not seem to represent Roberts at any stage of his career. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990. Cf. William Roberts ARA (cover illustration for Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue), 1965, and R.A. Summer Exhibition 1967 – design for a poster, 1967

Artist in a Paper Hat, The, see Paper Hat, The, 1960

Artist and Wife – study, 1940. Pencil and watercolour, 26.7 x 15.2. The existence of a further study for this picture is referred to in the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 28. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Artist and Wife, 1940. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 53.5 x 33. ‘A satire on lady artists and their husbands. William Roberts … thinks that it probably dates from the early years of the war’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: WR > Wilfrid Evill (Apr. 1942, 20 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£34,8500) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Allied Institutes 1943, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965 (where it was incorrectly titled The Artist and His Wife), Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Woking 2011, Hastings 2016, Cookham 2019, Bedford 2022. REPRODUCED: Studio 126 (1943), p. 42

Artist’s Brother, Portrait of the, 1910. Pen and sepia ink, 21.6 x 15.6. PROVENANCE: Jacob Kramer > ? > Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (estimate £2,000–£3,000; unsold) > Sotheby’s 30 Apr. 1986 (£1,320). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Artist’s Brother, Portrait of the, c.1911. Graphite on buff paper, 24 x 19. PROVENANCE: British Museum (purchased from Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1985). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 17

Artist’s Father, Brothers and Sister, Studies of the, 1909 (dated). Red chalk on paper, 28.6 x 21.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12745). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 10

Artists’ Son, Portrait of, see Recorder Player, The, 1935–6

Artist’s Son, The, see John, 1941

Artist’s Son John, see John, c.1932?

Artist’s Son Playing the Flute, The, see Recorder Player, The, 1935–6

Artist’s Wife, The, c.1920. Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 34. PROVENANCE: Private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 10

Arts Council, The – design for the poster for the William Roberts retrospective at the Tate Gallery, 1965. Pen and black ink, 25 x 18. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

As Large as That! – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

As Large as That!, 1975 (presumably not the same picture as Canal Scene: The One That Got Away 1975). Pencil and watercolour, 46 x 27.5. PROVENANCE: Jonathan Clark Fine Art (2010). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

As-hab (‘Companions’) – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. Annotated by Roberts, ‘100’. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 16)

As-hab (‘Companions’), 1925–6 (five figures). Pen and ink, 28 x 20. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Annotated by Roberts, ‘Page 100’. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 17). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, pp. 460 and 591

At the Ballet – study for The Ballet, 1932. Black chalk and pencil, 12 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

At Daphne’s, c.1944. Watercolour. (Is this The Tea Party c.1944?) Daphne Dennison (see Portrait of Daphne 1942–3) became a friend of the Robertses when they lived outside Oxford during the Second World War. According to notes left by John Roberts, she lived in Oxford itself in ‘a beautiful flat in Cornmarket, central and above the traffic and a valuable port of call … She kept the flat so spotless, perhaps with help, that [a friend] said he felt like swallowing his cigarette ends.’ EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

At the Fair, Hampstead Heath, 1950. Oil on canvas, mounted on board, 14 x 64. Reproduced below the text on the left-hand side of a London Transport Board ‘pair poster’ advertising London fairs, with Roberts’s Hampstead Fair on the right-hand side. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (£2,860) > ? > Christie’s 26 Nov. 1999 (£9,775) > ? > Christie’s 11 July 2013 (estimate £25,000–£35,000; unsold).

At the Fox-trot Ball, 1914 (signed and inscribed). Pencil, ink and sepia wash, 35.6 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: W. R. P. George > T. T. Andreae > Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£1,980) > ? > Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (£3,000) > DC Art, Woollahra > ? (1988) > Christie’s 5 Mar. 1999 (£16,675). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Cork, Vorticism and Abstract Art, vol. 2, p. 377

At the Gym, see Vaulting Horse, The – study, 1974

At the Hippodrome – study, 1920–21. Inscribed ‘William Roberts 1921’, though the date seems to have been added later. Chalk and wash, squared, 49 x 46.6. PROVENANCE: Fine Art Society > Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford (£200, Jan. 1967). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Arts Council 1970, Arts Council 1977, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 85

At the Hippodrome (aka The Gods), 1920–21. Oil on canvas, 97.8 x 92.7. PROVENANCE: Edward Wadsworth > Contemporary Art Society (1923) > New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester (23 A 1935). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (2) 1922 (£90), Grosvenor House 1923, Manchester 1930, Dudley Public Library 1953, Copenhagen 1956, Tate Gallery 1965 (where dated 1920), Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007, Madrid 2012, Ben Uri Gallery 2013, Two Temple Place 2018, Milton Keynes 2019. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 85

At the House of Mrs Kinfoot, 1921. Two endpapers for the book of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, published by the Favil Press: ‘At the house of Mrs. Kinfoot / Are collected / Men and women / Of all ages. / They are supposed / To sing, paint, or to play the piano … ’ REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1994 catalogue

At the Launderette, c.1970. Pencil, squared, 18.4 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Albemarle Gallery 1970 > ? > Christie’s 14 Mar. 2002 (£1,175). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Artmonsky Arts 2001

At the Launderette (aka The Laundry-mat), c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 34 x 47. PROVENANCE: I. Langlands. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970

At the Local, see Saturday Night, c.1970

At the Sea, suggest c.1948–50. Pencil, 13.5 x 18.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12629, as Families on a Beach). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

At the Zoo, see London Zoo, 1953

Athletes Exercising in a Gymnasium (aka Gymnasts), 1920. Pen, watercolour and pencil on paper, 45.1 x 35.9. PROVENANCE: Rudolph Stulik > Louis Golding > Reid Gallery > Tate Gallery (T00322, purchased 1960). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mansard Gallery 1920, Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Estorick Collection 2004, Tate Britain 2012, Sydney 2016. REPRODUCED: Estorick Collection 2004 catalogue, pl. 29

Attack – The Capture of Delville Wood, An, c.1918. Ink and chalk, 15.8 x 25.4. Inscribed ‘Ministry of Information’ (top right) and ‘The Capture of Delville Wood, 1916’ (bottom right). During the Battle of the Somme in the First World War, Allied troops began their attack on Delville Wood on 15 July 1916. The Germans were driven out from their final positions there on 3 September; they recaptured it on 25 March 1918. ‘Continuing our journey the 51st Brigade moved to a sector of the line covering the town of Albert. Many of the men had been in this part before during the fighting of the summer of 1916. They talked of the heavy fighting around High Wood and Delville Wood and of their dead or wounded comrades’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1887). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Madrid 2008

Auction, see Art Auction, The, 1975

Auction Room, The, c.1920. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mansard Gallery 1920

Autumn, 1966–7. Oil on canvas, 61 x 76.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Autumn, 1975. Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 36. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. Cf. Autumn 1966–7 – different image

Avant-guard, The [sic] – study (aka The Enthusiasts), Apr. 1970 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 18 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY (as The Enthusiasts): Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gilliam Jason Gallery 1990, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Avant-guard, The [sic], 1970 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 67 x 63.5. PROVENANCE: Piano Nobile (2016). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Baby, The, see War Baby, The, 1946

Bacchanal, c.1908 (signed and inscribed). Red chalk, 28.2 x 36.2. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Ivor Braka > Ian Posgate > private collection, UK > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers 18 May 2021 (£2,860)

Bacchanal, see Return of Ulysses, The – study, 1913

(recto) Back-door, The – study, 1942–3. Pencil, 15 x 11.5
(verso) Fragment of a female nude life study, c.1942. Pencil, 18.5 x 13
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Back-door, The – study, c.1942–3. Pencil, 21.6 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12714)

Back-door, The, 1942–3. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: In the possession of the artist 1960. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 46 (though the work seems to have been signed after being reproduced here)

Back-door, The (aka Backyard), 1942–3. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 19 May 1972 (when dated 1939; £900) > ? > Offer Waterman. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

Bakers at Work, c.1953. Pen and ink. Artwork used on the front cover of the fourth edition of the booklet Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health, published by Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd in 1956. It is likely that this front-cover design was also used on the revised third edition issued in 1953. This title was the last in a series of four LHC recipe booklets, and was first published in 1946. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > current whereabouts unknown. EXHIBITION HISTORY: It is possible that this drawing was among the ‘5 cover designs for publications for The London Health Centre’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972, but these were not individually identified. REPRODUCED: In addition to being used on the cover of the recipe booklet, this drawing was used in the LHC’s 1954 calendar. Cf. Mother and Children Picnicking c.1948, Salads for All Seasons, 1948–53, Children Eating and Drinking c.1953

Backstage, suggest mid-1920s. Black chalk, 18.5 x 24. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Ball, The – study, c.1965. Pencil, 17.6 x 12.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Ball, The (dogs jumping for a ball), c.1965. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 43.5 x 31.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 6 Oct. 1993 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966. REPRODUCED: The Connoisseur, Aug. 1966

Ballet, The, 1920. Pen, ink and wash, 38.5 x 30. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976

Ballet, The (aka The Ballet Dancer) – study, c.1932. Pencil, lightly squared, 17.8 x 19.7. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill > ? > Christie’s 28 Nov. 2000 (£2,820) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2002 (£5,736) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Institute of Adult Education, no. 10, catalogue untraced [date?], Artmonsky Arts 2001, Woking 2011, Chichester (1) 2016

Ballet, The, c.1932. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Mrs Robin Brook (née Helen Knewstub): ‘The watercolour for it [the oil – q.v.] belongs to Mrs Robin Brook’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.

Ballet, The, c.1932. Oil on canvas, 40.8 x 45.6. PROVENANCE: Miss Elizabeth Watt from London Artists’ Association 1933 > Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (1989). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1933 (‘a brilliant little painting … The lighting implies a bolder bid for depth than is usual with the artist, and feminine absorption in the dancer, to the boredom of one male, gives the right ironical flavour’ – The Times, 13 Jan. 1933), Tate Gallery 1965, Edinburgh 1989

Ballet, The, 1944. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Ballet, The, 1944 (painted in Oxford). Oil on canvas, 35.6 x 45.7. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > Sotheby’s 18 July 1973 (£1,050) > private collection (1980). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts. Cf. The Ballet c.1932

(verso) Ballet Dancer, c.1930. Pencil, 22 x 15
(recto) Scene in a Restaurant, c.1930. Pencil, 24 x 17.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Ballet Dancer, The, see Ballet, The – study, c.1932.

Ballet Dancers, see Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain, c.1931

Ballet Dancers Rehearsing, see Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain, c.1931

(recto) Ballet Rehearsal, c.1931. Possibly an abandoned idea for a Camargo Ballet drop curtain (see below). Pencil, 24 x 17
(verso) Boys Asking for Money, c.1931. Red chalk, 21.8 x 18.3. Cf. Beggars and Boys 1944
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(recto) Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain, c.1931 (inscribed and dated in black ballpoint ‘1925’, although the Camargo Ballet was operational only from 1930 to 1933; see below). Pencil, 24 x 31
(verso) Part of drawing of Lydia Keynes, c.1932. Red chalk, 24.5 x 25. Cf. John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain (aka Drop Curtain for the Carmago Ballet), c.1931 (inscribed in black ballpoint ‘1925’, although the Camargo Ballet was operational only from 1930 to 1933; see below). Pencil, 23.1 x 34. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001) > Tate Gallery (T12673, accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985 (as Drop Curtain for the Carmago Ballet). Cf. Ballet Rehearsal c.1931

Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain (aka Camargo Ballet Backdrop), c.1931 (also dated as 1934, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 catalogue). Pencil, 26.7 x 31.8. This study appears to have been signed at some date following its reproduction in Roberts’s Paintings 1917–1958 (1960). Possibly this and the other pencil studies (above) were signed and, in the other cases, inscribed and incorrectly dated (in ballpoint) at the same time – perhaps in advance of this work’s exhibition at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in 1969. PROVENANCE: Private collection, UK > Offer Waterman (before Nov. 2006). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 (as Camargo Ballet Backdrop). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 38

Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain (aka Ballet Dancers and Ballet Dancers Rehearsing), c.1931. Watercolour, pen and ink, 26.5 x 37.5. The Camargo Society was set up in 1930 with the purpose of furthering the interests of English ballet. Principal dancers included Lydia Lopokova (married to Maynard Keynes), Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin. Operational only from 1930 to 1933, the society was innovative and influential. In addition to William Roberts, other artists who designed for it included Vanessa Bell, Edward Burra, Duncan Grant and Gwen Raverat. Design used in the Savoy Theatre, 1932 (‘There was little pleasure and not much amusement to be had from the special drop-curtain painted by Mr. William Roberts and exposed to view during the performance of Constant Lambert’s Romeo and Juliet Suite in the interval’ – The Times, 8 June 1932). PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 23 Apr. 1969 > Cork Street Gallery (£430) > ? (Dec. 1969) > Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 2006 (as Ballet Dancers, £27,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935 (as Ballet Dancers Rehearsing)

Balloon Seller, date uncertain. Pencil, 14 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Banjo, The, see Sarah with Guitar, 1920

Bank Holiday in the Park – study, 1923 (signed). Charcoal on paper with green wash, squared, 25.4 x20.3. PROVENANCE: Swindon Art Gallery (bought 1957, Phelps Bequest). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (?)

Bank Holiday in the Park – study, 1923 (signed on verso). Pencil, 38 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Jonathan Clark Fine Art (2010). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (?)

Bank Holiday in the Park, 1923. This is assumed to be the ‘large work’ (Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 26 Apr. 1929) titled A London Park for a period in the late 1920s. Oil on canvas, 152.5 x 120. (‘A bank-holiday scene on Primrose Hill’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.) PROVENANCE: E. Kennington £60 > returned to William Roberts, later sold by William Roberts £100 > Ernest Cooper > Christie’s 3 Nov. 1967 (unsold at 1,200 gns) > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£8,000) > Anthony d’Offay > Simon Sainsbury, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1925, Leeds 1928 (as A London Park: ‘wilful hideousness, but one cannot deny [its] power or that [it does] depict vividly the lowest types of Cockney humanity’ – Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 4 Apr. 1928), Manchester 1928 (as A London Park, 200 gns), Eastbourne 1928 (as A London Park: ‘a ghastly collection of ugly creatures’ – Eastbourne Chronicle, 20 October 1928), Derby 1929 (as A London Park: ‘a pattern of some aesthetic pleasantness, notwithstanding the repulsiveness of the types depicted’ – Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 26 Apr. 1929), London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as A London Park, 200 gns; ‘[W]hile [Roberts’s] designs must appeal to connoisseurs of form, he can hardly fail to please and interest those who appreciate the human richness of taxicab men, omnibus conductors, potmen, and courting couples – of the world summarized in his “London Park”’ – The Times, 18 June 1929), Pittsburgh 1929, St Louis 1930, London Artists’ Association (1) 1931 (100 gns), Hamburg 1932 (as Bank Holiday im Park), Tate Gallery 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987. REPRODUCED: The Sphere, 20 June 1925 (captioned ‘A Fine Specimen of the Nightmarish Art of To-day’). A detail of the picture was used on the cover of the Penguin edition of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London in the 1960s and ’70s.

Barber’s Shop, The – study, c.1946. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 15.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery 1972 > Miss Ann McKeague > Christie’s 21 July 1988 (£3,200). Cf. The Barber’s Shop 1976

Barber’s Shop, The, c.1946. Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.6 PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > David Carr (1946) > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 2011 (£127,250) > ? > Sotheby’s 12 June 2018 (£406,000). EXHIBITED: Leicester Galleries 1946. Cf. The Barber’s Shop 1976

Barber’s Shop, The – study, 1976. Pencil and watercolour, 19.1 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12728). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992. Cf. The Barber’s Shop c.1946

Barber’s Shop, The, 1976. Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 61.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983. Cf. The Barber’s Shop c.1946

Barra Graveyard, Shetlands, see Graveyard at Barra, 1946–7

Sidney J. Barton, 1959. Pencil, 32 x 24

Sidney J. Barton, 1959. Oil on canvas, 90 x 70. Barton (1909–86) was chairman of the London County Council 1959–60 and was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour by France, awarded the Order of Homayoun class III by the Shah of Iran, and given the Grand Cross of the Order of Al Merito by Peru. ‘William Roberts …was commissioned to paint Sir Sidney Barton, who gave him ten sittings and rejected the finished result. In the Greater London Records files there is a plaintive note from Roberts saying that he had delivered the Barton portrait to Room 151 at County Hall, as it was the room in which Barton had sat to him and he could find no one who would take the painting from him. He finished by saying, he hoped it would be framed. It was not framed but shunted from storeroom to storeroom and, somewhere along the way, a graffiti biro moustache was added … A portrait [of Barton] by Leslie Robert Baxter was accepted’ – from the Holdaway Family website, accessed 20 Feb. 2018. The graffiti seems to have been removed. PROVENANCE: Greater London Council > Corporation of London, Guildhall Art Gallery

Baseball Players – study, 1959. Pencil, squared, 19.0 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Baseball Players, 1959. Pencil and watercolour, 34.5 x 28. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Basket of Fruit with Bottles, c.1953. Pen and ink. Artwork used on the back cover of the expanded and revised edition of the booklet A Simple Guide to Healthy Food published by Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd in 1953. It is likely that this drawing was produced at around this date. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper. It is possible that this artwork was part of a collection of thirteen unnamed pen-and-ink drawings by Roberts which comprised lot 120 of Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 sale of modern British and Irish paintings, drawings and sculpture. Twelve of these drawings (including the front-cover artwork for A Simple Guide to Healthy Food) were then offered for sale by Abbott & Holder in June 1999. EXHIBITION HISTORY: The printed booklet A Simple Guide to Healthy Food was included in Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003 catalogue, p. 36. Cf. Children Eating and Drinking c.1953

Baskets, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Baskets’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.6 x 6.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Basque Dancers, c.1942. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

H. E. Bates, 1927. Pencil, 27.9 x 19.1. Herbert Ernest Bates (1905–1974) was born into a family of shoemakers in Rushden, Northamptonshire. On leaving Kettering Grammar School, where his English teacher had encouraged him to write, he became, aged 16, first a reporter on a local paper and then a warehouse clerk for a leather merchant, where he had time to start writing seriously. In June 1926 his first novel, The Two Sisters, was published, after nine rejections. Later that summer Bates took a job at the Bumpus bookshop in London. He stayed at Bumpus for only a few months, but during that time he met the bookseller-publisher Charles Lahr (see Esther Lahr 1925), who published stories by Bates in his periodical The New Coterie. This drawing was used as a frontispiece both to New Coterie no. 5 (spring 1927) and to two stories collected as H. E. Bates, The Spring Song and In View of the Fact That (London: E. Archer, 1927; San Francisco: Lantern Press, 1927). In August 1927 Bates was a member of a group including Lahr, Roberts and the writer Rhys Davies that made a visit to Lahr’s birthplace in Germany. Bates later described the trip (and his first meeting Lahr) in his memoir The Blossoming World (1971). (See also The Prodigal Sets Out 1927–8.) Bates went on to achieve great success as a short-story writer and novelist, especially with the wartime series of stories (first appearing as by Flying Office X) about the exploits of the Royal Air Force (to which in 1941 Bates was recruited as a writer) and with the rustic novels that began with The Darling Buds of May (1958) and which were filmed as an extremely successful television series in 1991. PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > ? > Christie’s 23 Mar. 2011 (£2,875) > National Portrait Gallery (NPG 6909). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937, Plymouth 1938, Bradford, Cartwright Memorial Hall (date unknown)

Bath, The see Ritual Bath c.1947

Bath-night – study (aka The Family), 1929. Pencil, squared, 14 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Bath-night – study (aka The Family and Workman’s Family), 1929. Pencil, 20.4 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1944/5) > Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow (1946). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as The Family, 12 gns)

Bath-night – study (aka The Family – a Colour Study), 1929. Watercolour, pencil and gouache, 28.5 x 38. PROVENANCE: L. K. Elmhirst (purchased from the London Artists’ Assocation, Dec. 1931) > Dartington Hall Trust > Sotheby’s 16 Nov. 2011 (£19,375) > ? > Christie’s 21 June 2016 (£74,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Family: colour study, 8 gns)

Bath-night (aka The Wash), 1929. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. Sarah and William Roberts’s son, John David Roberts, was born in 1919, and at the time of this picture would have been about 10 years old – which suggests that there could be an autobiographical element here. The family were struggling financially during the 1920s and ’30s, and lived in a succession of small rented flats. While this scene is not necessarily a literal depiction of John being bathed by Sarah, with William Roberts reading the newspaper, it is nevertheless probably drawn fairly directly from the Robertses’ domestic experience. Sarah and John would serve as models for William Roberts throughout his life, sometimes quite directly. However, Roberts also created characters in his paintings that are more generalised types – built upon observed gestures, postures, facial expressions and clothes while not being actual portraits – and this is probably the case with this work. PROVENANCE: Sir Kenneth Clark > ? > Bolton Museum and Art Gallery (1940; N.B. sometimes incorrectly titled Miner’s Toilet – cf. letter from John David Roberts to Bolton Museum 10 Mar. 1987 and to Dartington 1993). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as The Wash, 30 gns), Manchester 1985, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007, Beijing 2012. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 64

Bath-night, 1973. Oil on canvas, 61.0 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Frank Cohen > Christie’s 9 June 1989 (estimate £8,000–£12,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973, New Grafton Gallery 1976, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Bathers (aka The Prophet and (?) Sea Frolic), 1923 (signed, dated and inscribed ‘Bathers’). Pencil on paper, 50.8 x 38.1, squared. This is probably the drawing exhibited as Sea Frolic at Chenil Galleries in 1923; a number of drawings in that exhibition seem later to have had their names changed. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 111, with 4.5 Howitzer c.1924 and six drawings by Edward Wolfe; £2) > ‘Golding’ > ? > Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (unsold) > Christie’s 13 June 1986 (estimate £1,500–2,500; unsold) > Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (estimate £2,000–£3,000) > Geoffrey Beene > Christie’s New York 24 May 1994 (as The Prophet, $2,760) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2002 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > ? > Ruth Artmonsky > Offer Waterman > ? > Osborne Samuel. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (as Sea Frolic)?, Artmonsky Arts 2001, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 10

Bathers (aka Family Bathing), c.1925. Etching, 10 x 11. PROVENANCE: ‘good impression … with full margins, in good condition apart from pale light-staining’ sold Sotheby’s (where dated c.1924) 8 Nov. 2001 (£1,560). An impression bought from Austin/Desmond Fine Art was donated to the British Museum by the William Roberts Society in 2015. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Family Bathing, 5 gns), Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Harold Monro (ed.), The Chapbook: A Yearly Miscellany, no. 40 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1925), p. 30

Bathers, The – study, c.1925, Red chalk, 13.5 x 9.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Bathers, The, c.1925. Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. PROVENANCE: Mrs Nora Meninsky > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1987 > ? > Austin/Desmond Fine Art

Bathers, The, c.1940. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 11.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 1978 (£250)

Bathers, The (aka River Picnic), 1943–4. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 34 x 52.5. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945 (where titled River Picnic), Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Bathers I, 1942–4. Pencil and watercolour, 11.4 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Pallant House Gallery (Charles Kearley Bequest, through the Art Collections Fund, 1989). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942 (?), Hamet Gallery 1973 (where dated 1940). Cf. The Bathers 1943

Bathers II, 1942–4. Pencil and watercolour, 11.9 x 17.3. PROVENANCE: Bonhams Knightsbridge 12 Sept. 2008 (£3,360) > Goldmark Gallery (2009). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. Cf. The Bathers 1943–4 and Tropical Sea 1942–4, which uses the same composition with some changes of detail

Bathing the Baby, see Women Bathing a Child, 1939

Battalion Runner on the Duckboard Track, The, suggest 1922. (The visual style suggests an early 1920s date rather than a 1918–19 date. However, if this and ‘Feeds Round!’ were both 1922, why was neither included in the one-man show in 1923?) Oil on canvas, 60.9 x 50.8. REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth. LOST

Battering Ram, 1919 (title ‘almost certainly incorrect’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 24). Watercolour, 35 x 35. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 9 July 1958 (£12) > Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Battery Preparing to Fire a Salvo (aka 4.5 Battery Dug-in), 1918. Pencil and ink, 13.7 x 17.8 PROVENANCE: Sold 1984 (£460). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Maclean Gallery 1980

Battle of the Amazons, see Combat, 1966

Battledore and Shuttlecock, see Shuttlecock – study, 1934

Beach, The, c.1957. Watercolour? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. Cf. Beach Scene 1955

Beach Fight, see Combat – study, 1966

Beach Fun – study, c.1929. Pencil, 12.7 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12688). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Beach Fun – study, c.1929. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (2) 1933 (8 gns)

Beach Fun, c.1929. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Venice 1932 (as Giuocchi di Splaggia), Pittsburgh 1933, Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935 (‘a curious design, hard as iron … [with] the singleness of purpose and individual colour of a Siennese Primitive’ – ‘Our London Correspondence: A Modern Satirist’, Manchester Guardian, 20 Feb. 1935). REPRODUCED: P. G. Konody, ‘Modern British Painting’, in Fine Art: Special Spring Number of the Studio, ed. C. Geoffrey Holme (London: The Studio, 1931; New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1931), p. 98

Beach Scene, 1950–60, suggest 1955. Watercolour, 15 x 19. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(verso) Beach Scene, fragment
(recto) Woman Knitting and Cat, c.1930. Black chalk, 22.5 x 14.5
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(verso) Beach Scene, Paddling
(recto) Card Players, date unknown – suggest 1937. Pencil, 17.5 x 17. (‘This is the left hand side of a longer panel containing eleven figures’ – Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue.)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Bears, The, c.1953. Pen and watercolour. Illustration for the top panel of the London Transport poster Brush Up Your Jungle

Beatles, The, 1964. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7. The drawing presumably relates to the release of the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night in July 1964. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12648). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Beauty Queens – study, 1974. Pencil and watercolour, squared 12.7 x 15.9. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > Dr and Mrs Clein > Christie’s South Kensington 15 July 2015 (£17,500) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking

Beauty Queens, 1974. Oil on canvas, 41 x 51. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1992 (estimate £10,000–£15,000) > ? > Phillips 25 Sept. 2001 (estimate £12,000–£18,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 15 July 2008 (£22,500) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989, Woking 2011, Woking 2015

Bed-time Story – study, 1943. Pencil and watercolour, 12.7 x 17.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). Tape on rear of frame inscribed ‘Marston flat’.

Bed-time Story, 1943. Oil on canvas, 25 x 35. Painted at Oxford. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist c.1959 by Mrs Nora Meninsky > ? > Luke Gertler. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1948, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 17

Bedroom, The – study for etching, c.1925. Signed and inscribed ‘The Bedroom’. Black chalk and pencil, 12 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Bedroom, The, 1925 (also dated as c.1927). Etching (edition of three), 11.0 x 8.4. PROVENANCE: one impression in the Victoria & Albert Museum (acquired 1978), another in the National Gallery of Australia (acquired 1980). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992. REPRODUCED: Harold Monro (ed.), The Chapbook: A Yearly Miscellany, no. 40 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1925)

Bedroom, The, 1962. Pencil and watercolour, 48 x 35. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Beer Barrels Being Put in a Cellar (aka Draymen), date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper torn from a notebook, a line of red chalk above and below, 11 x 7.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Bees Gathering Pollen (aka Honeybees), c.1953. Pen and ink, 10 x 15. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972. It is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbot & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (as Honeybees), Abbot & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

Before the Race, see Jockeys Mounting – study, c.1949

Beggar Woman, see Woman and Dog, 1939

Beggars, The (aka The Family), 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil, 20.3 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Phillips 21 Nov. 2000 (£1,200)

Beggars, The (aka The Family), 1974. Pencil and watercolour, 47.0 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12681). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Beggars and Boys, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 11.8 x 17.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Behind the Scenes, 1920 (signed and dated). Watercolour, pen and ink, pencil, 36 x 52. PROVENANCE: WR until 1971 > [Hamet Gallery] > [Maclean Gallery] > private collection until 1987> ? > Mr and Ms Michael Wilsey, San Francisco. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Paris 1921? (as Dans les coulisses), Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, New York 1984, New York 1987, San Francisco 1993. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

May Berry, Portrait of, c.1933. Oil on canvas, 55.6 x 45.5. May Berry was probably the Mrs Berry who sold Roberts’s oil The Park Bench 1933 through Sotheby’s on 6 April 1960 and the wife of the ‘Joe Berry’ mentioned in a notebook of John Roberts’s as ‘A civil servant, no children, which enabled him to collect modern firsts, signed and limited … His books lined a wall and more of his flat overlooking the Thames. We went over to see the Boat Race from his windows … The Berrys visited Haverstock Hill [where the Robertses lived in 1929–35]. After tea in the garden, S[arah Roberts] and Mrs B went up to prepare supper, Berry and WR were discussing politics.’ ‘Joe Berry’ would appear to refer to Arthur Edwin Berry, who in 1922 passed the Civil Service ‘Clerical Class (Men)’ examination and was employed at the Inland Revenue and, according to electoral registers, in the early 1930s was living at 58 Upper Mall – overlooking the Thames at Hammersmith – with May Berry. PROVENANCE: The sitter > ? (by descent) > Christie’s 21 Mar. 2018 > Liss Llewellyn Fine Art (£12,500)

Berry Picking, see Blackberry Picking, c.1944

Bicycle Boys, see Errand Boys, 1939

Bicycle Lesson, The – study, 1964. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?

Bicycle Lesson, The, 1964. Oil on canvas, 61 x 51. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Frederick O. Marsh > Christie’s 4 Mar. 1977 (£650) > ? > Christie’s 12 June 1987 (£9,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 30 Sept. 1998 > ? > ? (by gift) > Sotheby’s 23 Nov. 2016 (£68,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1964, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 33

Billingsgate – study, 1913. Pen, black ink and grey wash, squared, 33.0 x 28.6. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 13 June 1986 (£648)

Billingsgate, 1913. Pen, ink and chalk, 45.6 x 37.7. PROVENANCE: Sir Cyril Butler (commissioned when the artist was still at the Slade School) > Christie’s 26 Apr. 1963 > Valentine Swain > ? > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2017 (£162,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974. REPRODUCED: Cork, Vorticism and Abstract Art, vol. 1

(recto) Bird Nesting – study, c.1966 (also dated c.1971–4, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986). Pencil, squared 18.5 x 13.5
(verso) Nude, c.1955. The Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue identifies the sitter as the same model as on the verso of Boys on Swing c.1955. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993? (as Bird Nesting or The Vandals and dated c.1970, though this work may have been the 1968 study for The Vandals)

Bird Nesting (aka The Bird’s Nest), c.1966. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 43.2 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Nov. 1987 (£3,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 5. Cf. The Vandals 1968

Bird’s Nest, The, see Bird Nesting, c.1966

Birds’ Nests, see Vandals, The, 1968

Birth of Venus, The – study, 1954. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12677)

Birth of Venus, The – study, 1954. Pencil and watercolour, 51 x 34. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (£1,800) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (estimate £3,000–£5,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Birth of Venus, The, 1954. Oil on canvas, 125 x 85. According to the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite (known to the Romans as Venus), was born after the Titan Cronus had taken a stone sickle and cut off the genitals of his father, the sky, Uranus: ‘And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite … And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods … and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, – the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness’ (Theogony ll. 189–205, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914). PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£77,277) > ? > Sotheby’s 19 June 1996 (£34,000) > Sir Peter and Lady Osborne > Christie’s 10 July 2013 (£85,875). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1955, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 118. The image of the dangling fish was used in a similar way in Tropical Sea 1943–4.

Black Swan, The, see Punting, 1968

Blackberry Picking (aka Fruit Picking) – study, c.1944. Red chalk, 18.2 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Blackberry Picking (aka Fruit Picking), c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 17.8 x 11.8. PROVENANCE: Miss Marjorie Dell > Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 1978 (£250) > ? > Christie’s 5 July 1983 (£500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?, Hamet Gallery 1973

Blackberry Picking (aka Berry Picking), c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 53 x 34. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£5,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Postcard published by Ernest Cooper

Boat, The (aka The Zambesi) – study, 1960. Inscribed ‘Zambesi’. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Zambesi)

Boat, The (aka The Zambesi), 1960. Pencil and watercolour, 38 x 29. PROVENANCE: Private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated 1960–65), Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971

Boat Pond, The – study (aka Boating Scene), 1925. Black chalk, 18.5 x 14. PROVENANCE: Private collection – purchased from Sarah and John Roberts late 1980s. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Boating Scene)

Boat Pond, The – study (aka Boating Scene with Swans), 1925. Pencil, 18 x 13. PROVENANCE: Private collection – purchased from Sarah and John Roberts late 1980s. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Boating Scene with Swans)

Boat Pond, The, 1925. Oil on canvas, 120 x 90. PROVENANCE: Mrs Sidney Russell Cooke (c.1927) > private collection (1970). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club (2) 1925, London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (200 gns; ‘a very fascinating scheme of uprights, with a curly counterpoint through the swans and into the tree branches, while the attendance of at least three strong men on the navigatory requirements of two nymphs meets the human probability of the occasion’ – The Times, 18 June 1929), Café Royal 1955, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 75, where dated 1927

Boat Pond, The – study, 1956. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Boat Pond, The, 1956. Chalk and watercolour, 50 x 35. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford (£31, Apr. 1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Thos. Agnew & Sons 1962, Tate Gallery 1965, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 16

Boat Pond, The (aka The Boatmen), 1971 (signed and dated). Watercolour, bodycolour and pencil, squared, 50.8 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 26 Oct. 1994 (£4,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 32

Boat Scene (aka Boating Scene) date uncertain. Pencil, 11.4 x 15.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Boat Scene), Cambridge 1985 (as Boating Scene)

Boating Lake, The, 1977–8. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1978

Boating Party, see Windy Day, A, 1941

Boating Scene, see Boat Scene, date uncertain

Boating Scene with Swans, see Boat Pond, The – study, 1925

Boating Scene on the Thames, see Windy Day, A, 1941

Boatmen, The, 1915. Painting. ‘A large abstract composition The Boatmen, shown at the Second London Group exhibition and which Lewis mentions in Blast No. 2, was … lost during the later part of the War’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1915 (‘There is not even a suggestion of recognisable form in the jumble of rectangular colour stripes which Mr. Roberts exhibits as “Boatmen”’ – P. G. Konody, ‘Art and Artists: The London Group’, The Observer, 14 Mar. 1915). LOST

Boatmen, The, 1972. Pencil, 18.7 x 12.8. PROVENANCE: Wyndham Lewis Society. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Boatmen, The, see Boat Pond, The, 1971

Bohemians – study, c.1934. Pencil, 17.3 x 24.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Bohemians, c.1934. Red chalk, 35 x 50. This composition was later developed as Music Lovers, 1938. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (May 1942, 20 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > private collection, London (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942, Cairo 1947, Whitechapel Gallery 1952, Brighton 1965 (as Music Party, Bloomsbury), Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 90

Bohemians, see Music Lovers, 1938

Bombardment of Scarborough, The, 1915. During the First World War, on the morning of 16 December 1914, the battlecruisers Derfflinger and Von der Tann of the German High Seas Fleet began shelling Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast. Scarborough Castle, the prominent Grand Hotel, three churches and various other properties were hit. The British public were outraged, and ‘Remember Scarborough’ became a theme of army recruitment posters. Sir George Sitwell and 17-year-old Sacheverell Sitwell were staying in their house a few hundred yards from the sea at the time of the bombardment. Roberts’s picture was ‘rejected by the New English Art Club in 1915’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work.

Bond Street, c.1916. Pencil and watercolour, 35.6 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011. Cf. Street Acrobats 1923 and The Tumbler 1920–23.

Bonfire, The – study for Autumn, 1966–7 (signed). Pencil, watercolour and gouache, squared, 15.2 x 19. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > ? (1976) > Christie’s South Kensington 14 July 2016 (£7,500)

Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, 1957. Book cover artwork, using Father Time 1957 design. Pen and ink, 21 x 17. PROVENANCE: Bobby and Virginia Chapman > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers 16 Oct. 2013 (£1,550). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Boozers (aka Group Drinking at a Bar), c.1925. Etching, 10 x 10. PROVENANCE: Dr Frederick Mulder > British Museum (1985). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, British Museum 1990

Boozers, The, see Dive Bouteille, La, 1973

Borrachos, Los, see Dive Bouteille, La, 1973

Bottle Party, c.1937. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (25 gns)

Boule Players at Etretat – study, 1976. Pencil and watercolour, 15.2 x 18.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12690)

Boule Players at Etretat (aka Etretat), 1976 (dated). Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 15 Mar. 1985 (£4,860) > ? > Christie’s 5 Nov. 1999 (£11,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977

Bowling Alley, The – study, see Skittle Alley c.1927

Bowling Alley, The, 1927–8. Oil on canvas, 50 x 41.3. According to the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, this picture was ‘inspired by a visit to Germany’– see The Prodigal Sets Out 1927–8. PROVENANCE: Commander and Mrs P. M. Whatley > Sotheby’s 14 July 1971 > Hamet Gallery > private collection, USA (March 1973) > Christie’s 20 Nov. 2013 (£242,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

William Bowman, 1940 (signed and dated). Pencil, 31.9 x 24.4. Inscribed ‘“Old Bill” William Bowman Gun Shrinker Woolwich Arsenal’. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD13), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 1939 > Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1947.412). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1945

Box, The, 1923. Drawing. It is likely that The Box was the title under which the drawing later known as The Interval and inscribed with that title was first exhibited. This type of name change is not unprecedented in Roberts’s work: for example, the drawing exhibited as The Connoisseur in the 1923 Chenil Gallery exhibition is inscribed ‘The Picture Dealer’. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Boxers, 1914. Pencil, pen and ink, and collage, 60.5 x 53.5. The collage element of this work consists of a printed notice reading ‘KID LEWIS v. JIM BERRY AT THE PREMIERLAND’. In Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work (1957), Roberts wrote, ‘I became an abstract painter through the influence of the French Cubists … An additional stimulant to my interest in abstract art was the example of David Bomberg a friend and fellow pupil at the Slade School who had begun to produce some fine cubist compositions.’ ‘Kid’ Lewis (nŽ Gershon Mendeloff, aka the Aldgate Sphinx) was the British and European featherweight champion in March 1914 and was known to Bomberg through Bomberg’s brother Mo, himself a boxer. Roberts was particularly close friends with Bomberg – a fellow East Ender – in 1914, and the fight between Lewis and Berry, taking place in the Whitechapel venue Premierland, would have been a big attraction for both artists. However, in ‘“BLAST SPORT”?: Vorticism, Sport, and William Roberts’s Boxers’, Bernard Vere notes that he has been unable to find any mention of a fight between Lewis and Jim Berry in the boxing records, although these records are known to be incomplete. PROVENANCE: Acquired by St John Hutchinson c.1915 > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 10 May 2012 (£229,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1914 (‘The Futurist composition of Mr. Roberts … is not meant to be humanly possible, but it is meant to arouse our human interest. It contains some eight or ten very scrappy, angular gesticulatory figures, all quite impossible in their anatomy – and for this reason, that all these figures represent the movements of a single pair of fighters. The artists has set out to represent the emotion or sensation of combative movement. Had he tried to do so by flinging together upon the canvas eight or ten well-articulated human forms he would only have given us a crowd of that number of combatants … That was not his aim. His aim was, I take it, to give us visually the emotion and excitement produced by a single pair of boxers. To some extent he has done so. Anyway, that is the reason why he has drawn these figures as he has drawn them, and, whether we like the attempt or not, we get on these lines some understanding of his work and so some understanding of the work of other Futurists’ – Laurence Housman, ‘The New English Art Club’, Manchester Guardian, 23 May 1914), London Group 1915. Cf. Boxers 1919, The Interval before Round Ten 1919–20, Novices c.1921, Outclassed 1925, The Boxing Match c.1925–7

(recto) Boxers – study, c.1919. Pen, watercolour and black chalk, squared, 27.9 x 22.9
(verso) Boxers – study, c.1919. Pencil, 27.9 x 22.9
PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 9 July 1969 (£260) > ? > Sotheby’s 22 Mar. 1995 (£1,500) > ? > Phillips 1 Oct. 1996 (£3,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971. REPRODUCED: The Connoisseur, Mar. 1971. Cf. Boxers 1914

Boxers, c.1919. Woodcut for Mansard Gallery 1920 catalogue, 12 x 9.5. REPRODUCED: Mansard Gallery 1920 catalogue

Boxers – study for The Boxing Match, c.1921. Ink and crayon on paper, 15 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: Wolseley Fine Art (where dated c.1926). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Austin/Desmond Fine Art 2003

Boxing à la Summerskill, see Powder Puff Referee, The, 1956–7

Boxing Match, The (aka Boxing Scene, with Film Cameras), c.1925–7? Oil on canvas, 35.6 x 40.6. The unusual subject of multiple-camera filming of a boxing event from a suspended gantry suggests a connection to a pencil study exhibited under the title Boxing Scene, with Film Cameras at Reading in 1983 (no illustration of this undated drawing is available, and its whereabouts is unknown). The style of the figures would indicate a mid-1920s date, having some similarities with the style of figures in Roberts’s 1926 The Garden of Eden and Trafalgar Square. Filming of a boxing match from a gantry is shown towards the end of Alfred Hitchock’s 1927 silent film The Ring; but WR may have seen such filming for himself on visits to boxing matches. PROVENANCE: With Anthony d’Offay (1972) > Erich Sommer > Christie’s 9 June 2000 (£36,425) > private collection > Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 2011 (£217,250) > Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1986, Chichester 2007 (not included in the catalogue), Fortnum & Mason 2016. Cf. The Interval before Round Ten 1919–20, Novices c.1921, Boxers 1914, Boxers 1919, Boxers c.1921, Outclassed 1925, The Champion c.1926, The Champion’s Victory c.1926

Boxing Match, The, see Interval before Round Ten, The – study 1919–20, Novices, c.1921 and Winner, The, 1971

(recto) Boxing Puppets, The, c.1960 (also dated c.1955 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Pencil, 17.5 x 12.5, squared for transfer, although no painting is known
(verso) Milking Goats (aka Goats – study, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Boxing Scene, with Film Cameras, c.1925–7? Pencil, 18.5 x 21.5. The title suggests that this is a study for the oil painting The Boxing Match, which has the unusual subject of multiple-camera filming of a boxing event from a suspended gantry and appears to be in a style appropriate to the mid-1920s. However, it has not been possible to confirm that the two works are contemporaneous, as no illustration of this drawing is available and its whereabouts is unknown. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Boxing Scene, with Film Cameras, see Boxing Match, The, c.1925–7

Boy, Portrait of a (aka John and Boy in a Blue Jersey), c.1929. Oil on canvas, 69 x 60. This is usually dated as 1927, but John (b. 1919) appears to be about ten years old and is certainly noticeably older than in the portrait dated as c.1927. When exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1965 (no. 34), this was said to have been exhibited as Portrait of a Boy at the Redfern Gallery in 1942, but it seems more likely that it is Boy in a Blue Jersey shown then. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society (1942, £60) > Cyfartha Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Merthyr Tydfil (1943). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as John, 50 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965

Boy, Portrait of a, see John, c.1932?

Boy on a Bicycle (aka Errand Boy) and Going to Swim – study, 1930. Two drawings on one sheet of paper (24.7 x 17.2): brown chalk 16 x 9 and black chalk 8 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985. Cf. The Errand Boys 1939

Boy in a Blue Jersey, see Boy, Portrait of a, c.1929

Boy Wearing a Blue Scarf, Portrait of a (self-portrait – signed twice), suggested date 1908–10 (also dated c.1909–12 and c.1911–13 National Portrait Gallery). Watercolour, pencil and blue crayon, 27 x 26. PROVENANCE: Graeme Shankland, London > Christie’s 13 June 1986 (estimate £2,000–£3,000; unsold) > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1987 > National Portrait Gallery (NPG 6135, purchased 1991). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Rotterdam 2011

Boy Wearing a Sun-hat [John], 1931? Oil on canvas, 42.5 x 32.2. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (18 gns), Cambridge 1983 (‘[WR’s] Boy in a sun hat (51) puts the Renoir [Tête de Jeune Garçon en Costume Marin, also in this exhibition of the Maynard Keynes collection] in the shade’ – Richard Shone, Burlington Magazine, July 1983)

(verso) Boys Asking for Money, c.1931. Red chalk, 21.8 x 18.3. Cf. Beggars and Boys 1944
(recto) Ballet Rehearsal, c.1931. Possibly an abandoned idea for a Camargo Ballet drop curtain. Pencil, 24 x 17
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Boys Going for a Swim, see Going to Swim – study, 1930

Boy’s Head – study, 1910–12. PROVENANCE: Julian G. Lousada (1914). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914 (‘charming and academic (after the manner of the Slade School tradition)’ – J.M.M. (John Middleton Murray), Westminster Gazette, 21 May 1914)

Boys Fishing, c.1955 (though it is possible that this is Fishing c.1944). Pencil and watercolour, 53.3 x 34.3. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£550) > Marjorie Parr > Anthony d’Offay > Mrs S. C. Meinertzhagen > Christie’s 2 Nov. 2000 (£6,463). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. Tiddler Fishing 1972 and Tiddlers 1973

Boys Fishing (study for Tiddler Fishing 1972?), 1972. Pencil and watercolour, 18.8 x 15.3. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973. Cf. Boys Fishing perhaps 1950s (below)

(recto) Boys on Swing, c.1955. Red chalk, 12.2 x 6
(verso) Woman’s Face (fragment of life study), c.1955. Pencil, 10 x 13
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Boys’ Gym, The – study for Primrose Hill), c.1930. Pencil, 38.6 x 56.2. PROVENANCE: Lord Kenyon > National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (15 gns)

Boys’ Gym, see Primrose Hill – study, c.1930

(recto) Brass Balls – study, c.1922. Pastel, 27.3 x 20.0
(verso) Dance Club, The – study, 1921. Black chalk
PROVENANCE: d’Offay Couper Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health, c.1953 – a cover design for a publication of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, using the drawing Bakers at Work. Other LHC cover designs by Roberts were Good Food for Growing Children (c.1948), Salads for All Seasons (c.1953), A Simple Guide to Heathy Food (c.1953) and Towards Better Health (c.1953). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. The Kitchen – study (aka Some Recipes), 1942–5

Brass Balls (aka The Pawnshop, Outside the Pawnshop and Figures in the Shop), 1922. Oil on canvas, 101 cm x 76 cm. PROVENANCE: Lord Sieff of Brimpton (Israel M. Sieff) > ? > Tiroche Auctions, Israel, 27 June 2009 ($368,000) > Offer Waterman. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (‘grimly humorous and immensely animated … like a Cosimo Tura translated into modern life’ – P. G. Konody, The Observer, 18 Nov. 1923), Wembley 1925 (as Outside the Pawnshop, £50), Pittsburgh 1926, Southport 1928, Manchester 1928 (as The Pawn Shop, 100 gns), Chicago 1928, London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as Pawnshop, 100 gns), Mansard Gallery 1930, Venice 1930 (as Monte di Pietà) London Artists’ Association (various). REPRODUCED: Illustrated Souvenir of the Palace of Arts: British Empire Exhibition (London: Fleetway Press, 1925)

Brigade Headquarters: Signallers and Linesmen, c.1918 (signed). Ink and wash, 15.2 x 25.4. Inscribed ‘The Line Disc’. ‘An important part of a signaller’s work is to see that contact is kept between the batteries, and also with the headquarters of the brigade; in addition there is the wire to the artillery observation post in the front line. The infantry also had their telephone cables. These thin insulated cables of different colours, with their identity tags, crisscrossed the ground in all directions. They were continually getting broken or cut by shell bursts. When this happened, the line was said to be “diss”, and this meant signallers turning out. Putting the broken ends together again was hard enough in daylight, especially with “Jerry’s” shells dropping around. However, it was far worse to leave your dug-out at night and grope about in shell craters and mud, searching for the damaged wires with the “D Battery 51st Brigade” label attached, while the enemy’s guns did their best to destroy them again’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1888). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Arts Council (2) 1980, Madrid 2008

British Military Cemetery, 1918 (signed and dated). (It is unclear why this date is not referred to in the 1965 Tate Gallery catalogue (p. 23), where 1917 is supported by the comment ‘This may have been done while the artist was still on active service and before he became an Official War Artist.’ Presumably as a result of this anomaly, Sotheby’s suggest that it may have been signed and dated by the artist at some point after the 1965 exhibition.) Pencil, gouache and watercolour, 17.5 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: A gift from the artist to Bernard Meninsky, c.1918 > Nora Meninsky > Sotheby’s 30 Sept. 1999 (£6,325) > Austin/Desmond Fine Art > ? > ? > Sotheby’s 14 June 2016 (£33,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 51

G. S. Brodie (a mechanical staff foreman at Woolwich Arsenal), 1940. Pencil, 30 x 20. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD13), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 1939 > Woolwich Art Gallery (1947) > Greenwich Heritage Centre

Broken Branch, The – study (aka The Swimming Dog), 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 14.9 x 19.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Broken Branch, The, 1978. Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76.2. ‘A scene by the canal; the bather has broken off a branch to throw a piece for the dog, and the attendant accuses him of a crime against nature’ – John David Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Broken Vortex, The, 1956 (signed with monogram ‘WR’). Pen and ink, 11.4 x 7.0. Tailpiece for Roberts, Cometism and Vorticism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 2). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12647). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Brooch, The, c.1937. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (45 gns)

Robin Brook, c.1946. Oil on canvas, 43 x 33.5. Ralph Ellis ‘Robin’ Brook (1908–98) was a merchant banker and a member of various committees, especially in the health field. In 1937 he married Helen Knewstub (1907–97) – eldest daughter of John Knewstub, founder of the Chenil Galleries, and a friend of Sarah Roberts – who in 1963 founded the Brook Advisory Centres for family planning, and during the Second World War he served in the Special Operations Executive. He was knighted in 1974. This portrait was so disliked by both the Brooks that they cut back on the payment to WR. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1980, Reading 1983

Ernest Brown, Rt Hon.: Minister of Labour and National Service, Apr./May 1940. Pencil, 30 x 20. Ernest Brown (1881–1962) was the Liberal MP for Rugby in 1923–4 and first the Liberal (1927–31) and then the Liberal National (1931–45) MP for Leith. His ministerial appointments included Minister of Labour 1935–40, Minister of National Service 1939–40 and Secretary for Scotland 1940–41. On 17 April 1940 an official of the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) wrote to Roberts, ‘I have just heard from the Minister of Labour’s Private Secretary, Mr. E. A. Hitchman, that the Minister has been good enough to consent to give you sittings. I have asked Mr. Hitchman to get in touch with you direct in order to arrange suitable times. I said that I was sure that you would do your best to make it as easy as possible for the Minister to give you sittings at times when he could manage to fit them in in the course of his extremely busy life. I very much hope that the portrait will be a great success.’ And on 22 May 1940 E. M. O’R. Dickey of the WAAC wrote to his accounts department, ‘Mr Roberts has just brought in his portrait of Mr Ernest Brown wh. is the last of the 4 commissioned and he wd. be greatly obliged if he might have payment £10. 10. 0 today if at all possible’ (War Artists’ Archive, IWM GP/55/2). PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD 153)

Oliver Brown, 1924 (signed and dated). Pencil, 42.5 x 26. Oliver Frank Gustave Brown (1885–1966) was the only son and elder child of the art dealer Ernest George Brown (d. 1915), who in 1903 joined Wilfred and Cecil Phillips to run their recently opened Leicester Galleries, in Leicester Square, London. Oliver Brown joined the new firm of Ernest Brown and Phillips in the autumn of that year, and spent most of the rest of his life there. During the First World War (in which deafness prevented his enlistment) the gallery supported young artists including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Jacob Epstein, C. R. W. Nevinson, Paul Nash and Eric Kennington. Between the wars Brown and Cecil Phillips mounted a series of important shows by foreign artists including Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse (his first one-man show in England, in 1919), Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh. Roberts seems to have first exhibited there in a group show in 1922; he later had one-man exhibitions there in 1945, 1949 and 1958, as well as appearing in various group shows until 1964. He described his relationship with the gallery in his essay ‘Dealers and Galleries’. PROVENANCE: Oliver Brown > private collection, Sussex, by descent (2005)

Brush Up Your Jungle (aka London Zoo), c.1953. Poster, 90 x 21.5. Poster for a bus-stop panel; other versions of this poster appear with different wording and sizes. The title was inspired by the song ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ from the 1948 Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate, first produced in London in 1951–2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). REPRODUCED: Jonathan Riddell and Peter Denton, By Underground to the Zoo: London Transport Posters 1913 to the Present (London: Studio Vista, 1995), p. 79

Builder’s Cradle, The, see Travelling Cradle, The, 1920

Builders (aka Gunners Carrying Cases), c.1920? (signed). Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 4 Mar. 1998 (£4,600) > James Hyman Fine Art

Builders – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 13.5 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Builders, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 31.8 x 43.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980 Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Building a Hay Rick, see Hay Rick, c.1940 and Haymaking, c.1940

Bullfight – study, 1928. Pencil, 21.0 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12697)

Bullfight, 1928. Watercolour and black chalk on paper, 19.6 x 11.8. PROVENANCE: Pallant House Gallery (Charles Kearley bequest, through the National Art Collections Fund, 1989)

Bullfight, The, see Bum Bullfight, The, 1977

Bum Bullfight, The – study, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 10 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Bum Bullfight, The (aka The Bullfight), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 27.9 x 43.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as The Bullfight), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Burying the Dead After a Battle, 1919 (signed and dated). Black crayon on paper, 50.2 x 45.7. ‘We buried our own dead, together with some left over from the infantry’s advance, shoulder to shoulder in a wide shallow grave, each in his blood-stained uniform and covered by a blanket. I noticed that some feet projected beyond the covering, showing that they had died with their boots on, in some cases with their spurs on too’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Sir Stephen Gaselee > Christie’s 23 May 1947 > Abbot > Ernest Cooper > Imperial War Museum (15594). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1919, Bucharest 1935, Vienna 1936, Tate Gallery 1965, Preston 1993, Barbican Art Gallery 1994. REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth, and Burlington Magazine, Nov. 1989

Bus Queue, see Bus Stop, 1957 and Request Stop, The, 1957

Bus Stop, 1948–9. (This was not commissioned by London Transport, but was bought by them because of the subject.) Watercolour, 40 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > London Transport Board > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£4,620) > Corporation of London, Guildhall Art Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for £21 10s.), Whitechapel Gallery 1952, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. Rush Hour 1971

Bus Stop, c.1957. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Bus Stop (aka Bus Queue) – study, 1957. Pencil, 17.8 x 8.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12746). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980 (where dated as c.1955)

Bus Stop, 1957 (signed and dated). This is a similar but considerably simplified composition to Bus Stop 1948–9. Watercolour and coloured chalks, 53.3 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 8 June 1984 (as Request Bus Stop, £1,550) > ? > Sotheby’s 17 Nov. 2004 (as Bus Stop, £21,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. Cf. Bus Stop 1948–9 and The Request Stop 1957

Bus Stop, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Bus Stop’ – could relate to Rush Hour 1971. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Bus Stop, The, see History of the Omnibus, 1924 and The Request Stop, 1957

Buses, The, see History of the Omnibus, 1924

Butcher, The, c.1930. Inscribed ‘The Butcher’. Red chalk, 12.1 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Butcher’s Man, c.1930. Pencil, 26.7 x 19.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12676). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Cyril Butler, Sir, 1911–12. Red chalk, 55 x 37.9. Cyril Kendall Butler (1864–1936; he was not in fact knighted until 1920) was a commissioner in the Ministry of Food and a founder, treasurer and chairman of the Contemporary Art Society. In his posthumously published Early Years, Roberts wrote, ‘In the summer vacations of the following year [1912], I received another invitation to spend a few weeks in the country; this time from Sir Cyril Butler – a friend of Prof. Tonks [of the Slade School, where Roberts was studying] and a patron of the group of artists, members of the New English Art Club. Bourton House, where Butler lived, was a large country mansion near Shrivenham in Berkshire, set in extensive parkland … Following on my stay at Bourton, Sir Cyril commissioned me to do six drawings of London markets at two guineas each. But except for two markets, Billingsgate and Leadenhall, the drawings were never carried out. Several years after this, about 1919, I was living in an attic at 32 Percy Street, Tottenham Court Road, and being very hard up I wrote to Sir Cyril, hoping he might feel interested in buying a drawing or perhaps complete that set of London markets. He did not reply; instead, he called one evening; the visit was brief. After asking me what artists I associated with, and who my friends were, without mentioning the market drawings he departed, leaving me no better off than before.’ PROVENANCE: With the Mayor Gallery, 1969, from whom acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, with the University Purchase Fund, 1969. William Roberts wrote to the Fitzwilliam Museum in July 1969 confirming the attribution and describing the circumstances of the sitting (‘was done about 1911 or 1912 during my student days at the Slade’). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Robin Buxton, Captain, 1922. Pencil. Robert Vere ‘Robin’ Buxton (1883–1953) was commanding officer of the Imperial Camel Corps, part of General Allenby’s British army based in Palestine, when in July 1918 he and 300 men were loaned to T. E. Lawrence’s forces supporting the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. As a director of Martins Bank, he later oversaw financing the publication of Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in which he was described as ‘an old Sudan official, speaking Arabic, and understanding nomadic ways; very patient, good-humoured, sympathetic’ (ch. 99). In October 1922 Lawrence wrote to him about Roberts’s portrait, ‘ … the result is astonishing: you have become severe, abstracted, slightly sorry: with the laughter gone from your face … A wonderful drawing’ (27 Oct. 1922). PROVENANCE: The location of the original is not known. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923; Leicester Galleries (1) 1927; annotated proof plate (25.5 x 19) from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

By the Sea, c.1925? (‘mid-20s’ – John David Roberts in Cambridge 1985 catalogue). Charcoal and pencil, 15.2 x 17.8 (inscribed with colour notes). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12671). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

By the Seaside – study for The Promenade, 1970. Pencil, squared, 14.8 x 19.1 mm. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12732)

By the Seaside – study for The Promenade, 1970 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 31.1 x 47. PROVENANCE: Piccadilly Gallery > ? > Christie’s 18 Nov. 2005 (£10,200) > ? > Dreweatts 18 May 2010 (£16,200) > private collection (London)

By the Seaside– study (aka On the Beach), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 14.5 x 19.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 26 Feb. 2003 (as On the Beach, £3,600)

By the Seaside, 1977 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 61.0. PROVENANCE: Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold > private collection (1990) > Christie’s 22 Mar. 2023 (estimate £30,000–£50,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977

Café, The, see Discussion, The, 1929

Café-bar, see Restaurant, The, 1929

Café Royal Scene – study, see Pimps in a Bar, c.1921

Café Royal Scene (aka Discussion in a Bar and Pimps in a Bar), c.1921. Pencil, ink and watercolour, 40.5 x 51. Andrew Gibbon Williams describes this as a Café Royal scene with Augustus John central, seated, and Jacob Kramer in animated conversation with the two standing figures. In his memoir ‘The “Twenties”’, Roberts noted that ‘The Café Royal in Regent’s Street [sic] was the favourite meeting place of the artist and bohemians, where they could sit the evening out sipping a mezzo-grande or an absinthe, and await the arrival of Augustus John and his two stalwarts, Ian Strang the etcher and Horace Cole the practical joker’ (William Roberts, Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990), p. 136). A study for this, Pimps in a Bar, includes a bar counter and additional figures at the rear. PROVENANCE: Lady Drogheda > ? > private collection, London. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 62 (where titled Discussion in a Café)

Café Scene, c.1970. Pencil with red crayon border on lined paper, 11.3 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Café Scene, see Restaurant, The, 1929

Calvary, c.1908. (‘Seems to have been done in imitation of Tintoretto’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.) Wash, 18.75 x 50. PROVENANCE: W. P. Robins > Victoria & Albert Museum (E.489-1921). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

(verso) Calves (study for recto reversed), c.1940. Pencil, 16.5 x 21.5
(recto) Selecting Calves – study, c.1940. Pencil, 16.5 x 21.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Calypso Lullaby, c.1957. Watercolour? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

(verso) Camargo Ballet drop-curtain design – fragment, 1931
(recto) Shuttlecock – study (aka Battledore and Shuttlecock), suggest 1934. Pencil, 16.5 x 12.1
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12710). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Camargo Ballet Backdop, see Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain, c.1931

Camel Ambulance, A – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 30)

Camel Ambulance, A, 1925–6. (seven figures with camels). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘There, also, we bandaged up Fahad, who was sleepy with the lassitude of his severe hurt. Adhub, seeing this, took one of Matar’s new carpets, and, doubling it across the camel-saddle, stitched the ends into great pockets. In one they laid Fahad, while Adhub crawled into the other as make-weight: and the camel was led off southward towards their tribal tents’ (ch. 78). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 31). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 91

Camel Corps, see Camel March, 1922

Camel March, 1922. Drawing – presumably a study for the ink and watercolour version exhibited with it. PROVENANCE; ‘The Possession of T. E. Lawrence’ – Chenil Galleries 1923 catalogue. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Camel March (aka Camel Corps), 1922. Ink and watercolour, 33 x 57.8. This depiction of the army of the Arab leader Feisal en route to Wejh during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was based on a photograph taken by T. E. Lawrence. When he saw the finished illustration for Seven Pillars of Wisdom he wrote to Roberts, ‘I saw the camels yesterday. The colour first delighted me: it’s the most beautiful thing to look at: then I saw how excellent was the design: and the landscape is just what one would have wished (but hardly imagined anything so quiet as that lawn of uncrinkled sand): the whole thing is really marvellous: better than anything I thought possible’ (11 Dec. 1922). PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Michael Ayrton > Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (£19,800) > T. T. Andreae. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, Whitechapel Gallery 1929, Newcastle 1931, Johannesburg 1936, National Gallery 1940, Grosvenor Gallery 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Spink & Son 1988, National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 58

Camels, The – study, 1953. Pencil, 7.6 x 11.4. A study for part of the London Transport poster Brush Up Your Jungle. PROVENANCE: Court Gallery (2012). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Camels, The, c.1953. Pen and watercolour. Illustration for the bottom panel of the London Transport poster Brush Up Your Jungle

Canal, date uncertain. Gouache and watercolour, 15.2 x 11.4. EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1976

Canal, The, c.1927. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: St George’s Gallery (2) 1928

Canal, The – study (aka Regent’s Park Canal, The Fishing Contest), 1964–5. Pencil, squared, 20 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Canal, The – study (aka Regent’s Park Canal, The Fishing Contest), 1964–5. Watercolour, body colour and pencil, squared, 45.7 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > ? > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1990 (£9,350). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Canal, The (aka The Fishing Contest), 1964–5. Oil on canvas, 208.3 x 149.9. PROVENANCE: Private collection > Jonathan Clark Fine Art (2009) > Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Commonwealth Institute 1977. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 129

Canal Bank, The, c.1957? Inscribed ‘Canal Bank’. Red chalk, 17.8 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Canal Fishers, The – study, c.1957. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 16 x 13.5, inscribed on reverse of mounting board ‘Canal – fishing’. PROVENANCE: Roberts family > Gillian Jason > private collection (2020). Cf. Canal Fishing (date uncertain)

Canal Fishers, The, c.1957. Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Mrs F. J. Lyons > Salander–O’Reilly Galleries, New York > Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£5,500) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£7,700). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1957, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Studio 154 (1957), p. 53. Cf. The Canal 1964–5 and Tiddler Fishing 1972

Canal Fishing. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Canal Scene: The One That Got Away, 1975. 47 x 34. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Canoeing, see Windy Day, A, 1941

Canteen, The. Vignette, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11.2 x 13. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Cantering to the Post, 1949 (‘The artist wrote … that this picture was painted early in 1949 and sent to the Royal Academy of that year. Although it was accepted by the Hanging Committee it was not hung, “perhaps because only the Munnings’ breed of racehorse is allowed to show its paces there”’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by the Tate in 1951 (N06018). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 114

Ada Caplan (aka Portrait of a Lady), c.1930. Oil on canvas, 29.5 x 26.3. Ada Caplan (1893–1981) and her husband, Dr Henry Caplan, met William Roberts in the early 1920s through their friendship with Jacob Kramer, and bought a number of his pictures. In the 1920s and ‘30s Ada ran a Montessori school in Stamford Hill, London – she may have attended the training course that Maria Montessori ran in London in 1919. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 18 Apr. 1984 (£550) > Anna Wyner (the sitter’s daughter) > Gorringe’s, Lewes, 27 Jan. 2004 (£1,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 15

Capsized – study, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 14 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Capsized, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 27.5 x 37.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Card Game, The (aka Cards and The Card Players), c.1937. Red chalk over pencil, squared, 25.5 x 54.5. A companion piece to Music Lovers, also exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery in 1938. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper (before 1949) > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£5,149). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938, Bradford 1939, Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Ernest Cooper printed the image in colour on a large-format postcard

Card Player, The, see Card Trick, The, 1968

Card Players, The, c.1924. Charcoal, 17.8 x 22.9. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (estimate £800–£1,200) > ? > Christie’s 22 June 1995 (£1,463) > ? > Harry Moore-Gwyn British Art (2022). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

(recto) Card Players, c.1937. Pencil, 17.5 x 17. This study was developed into a longer panel containing eleven figures known as The Card Game  and The Card Players.
(verso) Beach Scene, Paddling
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Card Players, The – study, c.1937. Pencil, 16.5 x 35.6. Inscribed top left, ‘Remaining half of long panel 1 1/2" to 1'’. This study for Intellectuals is very similar to the red-chalk drawing The Card Game c.1937; however, some details are absent, such as the mirror behind one of the card players and a second painting on the wall. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12727). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

Card Players, The (aka Intellectuals), c.1937. Watercolour and gouache, 15.2 x 35.6. Signed top right corner. Intended as a pair to Music Lovers. PROVENANCE: Edward Le Bas (1963) > ? > Christie’s 3 Mar. 1978 (£650). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942 (as A Game of Cards – although this Redfern catalogue entry may refer to the red-chalk version listed above as The Card Game), Royal Academy Diploma Gallery 1963

Card Players, The, see Card Game, The, c.1937

Card Trick, The (aka The Card Player), 1968. (‘The enigma posed by the three of hearts in the card trick is echoed in the questioning expression of the artist’s face. Cards are not known, however, to have had any particular significance for Roberts’ – National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 14). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 18; National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Cards, see Card Game, The, c.1937

Carpenter’s Shop, The, see Carpenters at Work, 1912

Carpenters, The – study for mural (see Carpenters at Work 1912), 1912 (signed and dated). Pencil, 48 x 27. PROVENANCE: Dunedin Public Art Gallery (bequeathed by Dr Charles Brasch, 1973). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1956, Leicester Galleries (2) 1957

Carpenters at Work (aka The Carpenter’s Shop) – study for wall mural at Bishop Creighton House, London, 1912. Pencil and ink on buff paper, 34.1 x 19 (also described as 49.5 x 34.3 – Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England). ‘[Slade professor Henry] Tonks was anxious to encourage our interest in mural painting, and to this end had obtained permission to decorate the walls of a girls’ club in Lillie Road, Fulham. About half a dozen students took part in the scheme. The compositions were done in egg tempera, on paper stretched on the walls. My contribution was a panel showing carpenters at work’ (Roberts, Early Years, p. 14). The murals were already in need of some restoration in 1923, and when they were further damaged during the Blitz in 1940 it was decided to paint over them (John Sheppard, Bishop Creighton House 1908–2008: One Hundred Years of Work in the Community (London: Bishop Creighton House / Fulham and Hammersmith Historical Society, 2008), p. 36). PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1980) > Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Liverpool 1914 (as The Carpenter’s Shop), Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1980. REPRODUCED: Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England

Carpet Beaters – study (aka Carpet Cleaning), 1927–8. Pencil, 18.5 x 15.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Carpet Beaters – study, 1927–8. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 17.8 x 14. PROVENANCE: The Cooling Galleries > Court Gallery (2009)

Carpet Beaters, 1927–8 (signed and inscribed ‘The Carpet Beaters’). Watercolour and pencil, 37.5 x 30. PROVENANCE: Miss A. F. Brown > Contemporary Art Society (1938/9) > Harrogate Art Gallery (now Mercer Art Gallery) (1944). EXHIBITION HISTORY: St George’s Gallery 1929(?), London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (20 gns), Wakefield 1962, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 65

Carpet Cleaning, see Carpet Beaters – study, 1927–8

Carpets, c.1918. Pencil, 17.8 x 15. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. Cf. Carpet Beaters – study, 1927–8

Cassis 1922, see Loading Ballast, 1927

(recto) Casualty on a Stretcher, c.1928. Pencil, 16.2 x 11.5
(verso) Family Group, c.1928. Black chalk, 17.3 x 11.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Cat, The, c.1940. Pencil and wash, squared, 38.1 x 56.2. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.284-1958)

Cat, The, see Woman Playing with a Cat, 1943–4

Cat and Goldfish, see Goldfish Bowl, The – study, 1968

Catch, The, c.1947. (Is this Fishing c.1944?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1947 (£25)

Cats, The, see Pussy-cats, The, 1976

Caught, c.1951. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1951

Celebration, The, see Diners, The, 1968

Cellist, date uncertain. Pencil, 8.5 x 3.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Cellist, date uncertain. Red crayon, 6.5 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Cellist, see Double Bass, The, date uncertain

Chamber Music – study, 1937. Pencil, 17.0 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Roberts family > Anthony d’Offay > ? > ? (by descent) > Mallams, Oxford, 7 Dec. 2018 (£4,712). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Chamber Music – study, 1937. Pencil, 25 x 30. PROVENANCE: Sir Kenneth Clark > Contemporary Art Society (1951) > Wolverhampton Art Gallery (1952). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns), Arts Council (2) 1951, Tate Gallery 1965

Chamber Music, 1937. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (65 gns), Gloucester 1938 (65 gns), Liverpool 1938 (65 gns), Bradford 1939 (£60)

Chamber Music – study, see Rehearsal, The, c.1937

Champion, The, c.1926. This may be the same work as The Champion’s Victory c.1926 or a study for it (or vice versa), or the same work as or a study for The Boxing Match c.1925–7? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southport 1928 (‘a realistic boxing scene, the victim being counted out’ – Southport Visiter, 14 Jan. 1928)

Champion’s Victory, The, c.1926. This may be the same work as The Champion c.1926 or a study for it (or vice versa), or the same work as or a study for The Boxing Match c.1925–7? EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (2) 1926

Change of Address – study, 1960–61. Pencil, 12 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Change of Address, 1960–61. Pen and ink. A design produced for a change-of-address card for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, which moved its head office from 9 Wigmore Street to 35 Baker Street sometime in 1960–61. The illustration was later reused for a card announcing a further move, to 78 Baker Street, in 1965–6. The bearded figure leading the move is Cooper himself. One of the items being moved bears a reference to Dean’s Mill – purchased by Cooper in the mid-1950s: ‘We buy the wheat on the farm and grind it at our own mill’ (advertisement on the back cover of the 1956 edition of Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health). Among other objects the movers are carrying is a large painting: Cooper displayed some of his William Roberts art collection in his shops. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. Across the Counter 1958

Changing Over, see Changing Places, 1979

Changing Places (aka Changing Over), Aug. 1979 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 15.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Changing Places, 1979. Oil on canvas, 61.0 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Channel Crossing – study, 1934–5. Pencil, squared, 27.5 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Channel Crossing (aka Untitled (Figures on a Boat)), 1934–5. Pencil, squared for transfer, 53.5 x 32. PROVENANCE: Miss Anne F. Brown > National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (1939)

Channel Crossing, 1934–5 (also dated as 1933: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). (Inscribed under mount ‘Coast of France, Sailors hats white, in circles the words Dieppe–Newhaven Service’.) Crayon and gouache, 52.5 x 32. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > ? > BNY Mellon Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Florida 2011

Char, The – study, 1924. Pencil and watercolour, squared. PROVENANCE: P. G. Konody. REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 2 (1927), p. 129, where titled Drawing

Char, The, 1924 (painted in Fitzroy Street). Oil on canvas, 43.3 x 33. PROVENANCE: WR > Lord Duveen > Tate Gallery (N04148, 1926). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 31, where dated 1923, though in a letter of 1 August 1951 to the Tate Gallery (in the Tate archive) Roberts wrote that this picture was painted, to the best of his knowledge, in 1924.

Chasing Pigeons at Regent’s Canal, see Alarm, 1973

Checkmate, c.1937. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns), Bradford 1939? (£10).Cf. The Chess Players 1929–30

Checkmate – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 12.5 x 10. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Checkmate (a naked couple on a bed play chess), 1975. Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1976, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Checkmate, see Chess Players, The, 1929–30

Chefs, The – study, c.1966. Pencil, squared, 17.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Chefs, The, c.1966. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 31. PROVENANCE: Private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. Cf. The Wimpy Bar 1975

Cherwell, The, 1957 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 50. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Chess Players, The – study, 1929–30. Black chalk, 20 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Reading 1983

Chess Players, The, 1929–30. Pencil, squared for transfer, 15 x 13.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971

Chess Players, The – study (aka Checkmate?), 1929–30. Pencil, 26.7 x 24.1. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1981 (£2,530). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Check-mate: colour study, 8 gns?), Bradford 1939?

Chess Players, The – colour study (aka Checkmate), 1929–30. Pen and ink and watercolour, 35.5 x 25.5. PROVENANCE: Saxon Sydney-Turner > Barbara Bagenal > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 2012 (£94,850). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Check-mate, 12 gns), Bradford 1939?

Chess Players, The, 1929–30. Oil on canvas, 101.5 x 92. Notes by John Roberts mention his father – ‘a dogged player’ – playing chess with Paul de Zoysa ‘into the small hours’. It is possible, therefore, that the players shown here are members of the overseas-student community of which de Zoysa was a part. ‘The sketch for [this] painting is called “Checkmate”. The change of the title is significant: the anecdotal side of an incident in a game, from which Mr. Roberts derived his first inspiration, became of minor importance when it came to the painting of the picture. Here the problem broadens, and from a mere notation of a trivial occurrence grows into a dramatic rendering of a whole phase of human life and nature. It is this faculty of stating with unerring precision the essential character of certain aspects of humanity that makes Mr. Roberts more than an ordinary illustrator – P. G. Konody, ‘Art and Artists: Mr. William Roberts’, Observer, 1 Nov. 1931. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society (bought 1932, £75) > Newark Museum, NJ (gift, 1940) > Sotheby’s 10 May 2012 (£1,161,250) > private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (100 gns; ‘Good composer as he is, Mr. Roberts can also hold a picture together by the sheer force of its emotion as indicated by attitude and facial expression – the moment of tension in “The Chess Players,” for example’ – The Times, 30 Oct. 1931), Venice 1932 (as I Giucatori di Scacchi), New Zealand and Australia 1934 (‘ … that very controversial painting “The Chess Players” by William Roberts. The people came and excited themselves over this picture. Full of joy, but mostly of horror, they wrote their letters to the papers’ – The Group 1927–1977, Robert Dougall Art Gallery Survey 16, Christchurch, Nov. 1977, p. 6), Liverpool 1933, Tate Gallery (2) 1935, Wolverhampton 1937 (‘The big canvas … by William Roberts, “The Chess Players”, which irresistibly reminds one of a trio of American gangsters and their “ molls”, has crude forms intentionally created by an artist who can also produce the vivid and handsome “Creole Woman”, in which anatomical knowledge is demonstrated to be complete’ – Express and Star (Wolverhampton), 13 Mar. 1937), Whitechapel Gallery 1937, British Council 1939, Leicester Galleries 1939, Tate Gallery 1965, Ohio 1971. REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue and used on the poster for the exhibition (poster exhibited at Reading 1983)

Chianti or Tea? – study, 1976. Pencil, 15.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12650, as Tea and Beer)

Chianti or Tea?, 1976. Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 35. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

(recto) Child Carried on Shoulders, date uncertain. Red chalk, 12 x 6.8
(verso) Feet – fragment of life study, date uncertain. Pencil, 7 x 12.3
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Childhood, c.1937, Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (25 gns)

Children Eating and Drinking, c.1953. Pen, ink and watercolour, 14.6 x 13.3. Artwork used on the front cover of the expanded and revised edition of the booklet A Simple Guide to Healthy Food published by Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd in 1953 (with Basket of Fruit with Bottles c.1953 on the back cover). It is likely that this drawing was produced at around this date. The booklet was the first in a series of four LHC recipe booklets and was first published in 1945. This drawing was also used as an illustration in the London Health Centre’s 1954 calendar. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Abbott & Holder 1999; the printed booklet A Simple Guide to Healthy Food was included in Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003 catalogue, p. 36 . Cf. Mother and Children Picnicking c.1948, Salads for All Seasons, 1948–53, Bakers at Work c.1953

Chocolate Box, The, see Lovers Eating Chocolates in the Theatre, c.1953

Choir, The – study, c.1959. Pencil, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Bought from Gillian Jason Gallery > Sotheby’s 20 Mar. 2018 (£10,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (where dated 1965)

Choir, The, c.1959. Watercolour and pencil, 48.3 x 34.3. PROVENANCE: Victoria Kingsley > St Anne’s College, Oxford (gift, 1960; Kingsley, a friend of Sarah Roberts, matriculated from St Anne’s in 1920)

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple – study, 1922–5. Inscribed ‘1922’, but see the note on dates for the oil version below. Charcoal and red pencil, 13.3 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12659). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple – study, 1925. Watercolour and pencil, 20 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Dr Harold Caplan > Bonhams 3 Dec. 2002 (£5,000)

Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple, 1925. (Also dated 1922 in Reading 1983 catalogue; ‘Painted in Fitzroy Street at about the same time as “Dogs of the Beni Hillal”’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue; dated 1924 in Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 32.) Oil on canvas, 48 x 52.5. ‘And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves’ (Matthew 21:12–13). PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (£56) > ‘Tritton’ > Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1962 > ‘Jackman’ > Thomas Jones > Sotheby’s 13 Mar. 1974 (£4,800) > private collection > Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (1) 1926 (‘To this sacred subject Mr. Roberts has applied methods which he has previously applied to football scrums. The money changers are like grotesque pugilists attired for the ring, and the figure of Christ, drawn in the same style, is an outrage on tradition, on probability and on all æsthetic sensibility’ – Daily Mirror, 3 Nov. 1926; ‘suffers a little from the effect that the colour is too gay to be relevant to the subject, but it is oddly “real”’ – The Times, 3 Nov. 1926), Arthur Tooth & Sons 1935, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Commonwealth Institute 1977, Maclean Gallery 1980, Mayor Gallery 1982, Reading 1983, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 70

Christmas Party (aka Winter), 1956. Pen and ink, 18.9 x 13.3. One of four designs commissioned by Ernest Cooper for a ‘Four Seasons Callendare’, as the Worthing 1972 catalogue called it – Spring Lambing (aka Spring), Sun-bathing (aka Summer), Huntsmen (aka Autumn) and Christmas Party (aka Winter). Cooper regularly used William Roberts’s drawings on a ‘healthy eating’ theme for business calendars for his London Health Centre Ltd in the 1950s. The calendar’s dates correspond to the year 1957, so it is likely that it was produced at the end of 1956. The set was ‘repeated as a calendar by Sarah and John [Roberts] in the 80s’ (Gillian Jason Gallery) and again by the William Roberts Society for 2002. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (assumed to be part of lot 114, ‘four signed drawings in pen and black ink, framed as one’, which with the cover artwork for the LHC’s Towards Better Health catalogue sold for £5,980) > Duncan Miller Fine Arts > Ruth Artmonsky > ? > Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£3,760 for the four calendar drawings). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Cinema, The – study, 1920 (aka The Silent Screen). Pen, chalk, pencil and wash, 45.2 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Charles Lambert Rutherston > Manchester City Art Galleries (1925). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Independent Gallery 1921?, Manchester 1926, Art Council 1947, Arts Council (2) 1980, Preston 1993

Cinema, The – study, 1920. Pencil and watercolour, 20 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Bradford Art Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Independent Gallery 1921?, Newcastle 2004

Cinema, The, 1920. Oil on canvas, 91 x 76. PROVENANCE: Sydney Schiff > Mrs Violet Schiff > Lord’s Gallery > Sotheby’s 13 July 1960 (£320) > Wilfrid Evill > Miss Honor Frost > Tate Gallery (T00813, 1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Institute of Contemporary Arts 1948, Tate Gallery 1956, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Sheffield 1975, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Chichester 2007, Ghent 2007, Sheffield 2010, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 64

Classical Scene, c.1920. Red chalk, 17.4 x 22.2. The Cambridge 1985 catalogue described this ‘Unidentified classical scene’ as ‘perhaps a study for a Return of Odysseus’, though it is possibly more likely that it depicts a simplified version of the start of Book 3 of the Odyssey, when Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, arrives at Pylus in search of information about his father, translated by William Cowper in the 1910 Everyman’s Library edition as follows:

The sun, emerging from the lucid waves,
Ascended now the brazen vault with light
For the inhabitants of earth and heav’n,
When in their bark at Pylus they arrived,
City of Neleus. On the shore they found
The people sacrificing; bulls they slew
Black without spot, to Neptune azure-hair’d.
On ranges nine of seats they sat; each range
Received five hundred, and to each they made
Allotment equal of nine sable bulls.
Another possibility is that the picture depicts the point in the seventh labour of Hercules in Greek mythology when, having travelled to Crete to capture the bull that has been wreaking havoc on the island, Hercules has subdued the beast and is about to sail away with it. The Gillian Jason Gallery sold the picture as The Golden Calf, though the coastal setting and the boat seem to have nothing to do with the biblical story in Exodus 32. PROVENANCE: Roberts family (1985) > Gillian Jason Gallery > Lord and Lady Neill > ? (by descent) > Bonhams 30 June 2021 (£12,112). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as The Golden Calf)

Cliff Fighters, 1916–17 (also dated 1913 Maclean Gallery 1980). Pencil, pen and wash, 34.5 x 25. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Stephen Gordon c.1916–17 > Sotheby’s Nov. 1973 > Stephen Gardabout? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Climbers, The, 1969. Pencil and watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970

Clothes, c.1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938

Clothes Line, The, see Washing Day, 1976

Co-operation, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 13 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Coast of France, c.1942. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Cockatoos, The, 1958. Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist > Tate Gallery (T00196, Chantrey purchase, 1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004, Birmingham 2007. REPRODUCED: Tate website

Cockneys – study, c.1919. Red chalk, 37.5 x 38.1. PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery July 1966 > ? > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£5,800) > ? > Sotheby’s 7 Nov. 1990 (£12,650) > ? > Crane Kalman Gallery > Christie’s 20 Nov. 2013 (£43,750). In the 1990 Sotheby’s catalogue it is described as ‘the only surviving study for a large canvas painted c.1919 and subsequently destroyed’ – but see below.

Cockneys – study, c.1919. Pencil, pen and black ink and watercolour, part squared for transfer, 37.5 x 37.5. PROVENANCE: WR > Wyndham Lewis > Agnes Bedford > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2003 (£21,510) > Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert. EXHIBITION HISTORY: possibly the study shown in Mansard Gallery 1920

Cockneys: A Street Scene, c.1919. Large canvas. PROVENANCE: ‘A large painting The Cockneys … was bought by Eric Kennington. This picture was left behind when Kennington moved from his studio. The new tenant [in 1935], Julian Trevelyan, returned it to me, and I destroyed it’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 12. For more information on this picture, click here. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mansard Gallery 1920 (‘the figures are engaged in some kind of common action, but seem to be all acting furiously and separately like mechanical toys a little out of order’ – The Times, 1 Apr. 1920)

Coconut Shy, Hampstead Heath, 1950. Oil on canvas, mounted on board, 14 x 64. Reproduced above the text on the left-hand side of a London Transport Board ‘pair poster’ advertising London fairs, with Roberts’s Hampstead Fair on the right-hand side. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (£3,080)

Coconut Shy, 1950. Lithograph on paper, width 64. Two narrow panels of fairground scenes – coconut shy, rifles, roundabout and hoops – for a London Transport Board ‘pair poster’ advertising London fairs, before the addition of text. PROVENANCE: Corporation of London, Guildhall Art Gallery

Coffin Making – study, 1976. Pencil, 15.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12633)

Coffin Making, 1976 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 30.5 x 36. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Collecting Birds Eggs – study for The Vandals, 1968. Pencil and watercolour 23 x 17.5. The 2013 Sotheby’s catalogue describes this as ‘indistinctly signed and dated 63’. As the oil version was shown at the Royal Academy in 1970 it has been assumed that the indistinct date is in fact ‘68’. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery > ? > Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 2013 (£16,250)

Colours of Dress, date uncertain. Pencil, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Combat, c.1915. Ink. Published in Blast No. 2, p. 55. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974 (photo). REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth. Cf. Combat 1967. LOST

Combat – study (aka Fight on the Beach and Beach Fight, 1966. Watercolour over pencil, 14 x 17. The oil for which this is a study was in 1976 reproduced by Roberts as Battle of the Amazons, but in auctions following WR’s death the subject has been wrongly identified as Rape of the Sabine Women (in 1986) or The Rape of the Sabines (in 1995). PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Sept. 1983 (as Beach Fight, £550) > ? > Sotheby’s 21 Sept. 1983 (as Beach Fight, £550) > ? > Sotheby’s 30 Apr. 1986 (as Rape of the Sabine Women, £770) > Albemarle Gallery > ? > Christie’s 20 June 1995 (as The Rape of the Sabines, £1,553). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1976 (as Fight on the Beach c.1942/3), New Grafton Gallery 1979 (as Fight on the Beach c.1942/3), Spink & Son 1993 (as The Rape of the Sabines)

Combat (aka Battle of The Amazons), 1966. Oil on canvas, 60 x 76. PROVENANCE: Royal Academy – deposited as diploma work, 1967. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Royal Academy 1980. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 6 (as Battle of The Amazons). Cf. Combat c.1915

Common Market, The – study, 1963. Pencil, squared, 18.6 x 23.2. Some differences from the final version. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New York 1982, Cambridge 1985

Common Market, The – study, 1963. Watercolour over pencil, squared, 33.0 x 43.2. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£3,520) > private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Common Market, The, 1963. Oil on canvas, 150 x 195. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Harris Museum, Preston (£900). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1963, Tate Gallery 1965, Royal Academy (2) 1977, Nottingham 1977, Whitechapel Gallery 1978, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 133

Composition in Water-colour, see Street Acrobats, 1923

(verso) Conductor, The
(recto) Gypsy Encampment, c.1942 (or later – 1946–7?). Pencil, 18.5 x 13.5. Cf. The Gypsies, 1942
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Connoisseur, The (aka The Connoisseurs), c.1923? Black chalk and watercolour, 22.4 x 21. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (as The Connoisseurs, in lot 137 with Family at the Seaside, c.1926 and Male life study, c.1926?; £6 10s.) > Maynard Keynes (‘It is typical of Keynes’ love of a bargain that he should have acquired [this] example of one of the members of the LAA at auction rather than direct from the artist. At auction they worked out cheaper’ – David Scrase and Peter Croft, Cambridge 1983 catalogue, p. 59) > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

Connoisseur, The (aka The Picture Dealer), 1923 (signed and dated and inscribed ‘The Picture Dealer’). Charcoal, 51 x 40. ‘The artist says that it shows the Goupil Gallery (William Marchant & Co), with the Goupil’s bearded doorman in the background. [Roberts] is himself on the right, waiting anxiously for the collector to make up his mind’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 11 Nov. 1987 (£8,000) > private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Grosvenor House 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Tate Gallery 1945, Arts Council 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972 (as The Picture Dealer). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 24, where dated 1921 despite a visible inscription of ‘1923’.

Contadini, I – study, 1964. Pencil, 19.1 x 13.3. This is an alternative composition of the subject developed as Italian Peasants 1964. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12655, as The Peasants). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Contadini, I – study, 1964. Pencil and watercolour, 47.6 x 31.1. This is an alternative composition of the subject developed as Italian Peasants 1964. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 4 Nov. 1983 (£1,944) > ? > private collection (2020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971. Cf. Italian Peasants 1964

Control Room, Civil Defence Headquarters, The – study, 1941. Charcoal, and pencil, 19.1 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12664)

Control Room, Civil Defence Headquarters, The, 1941. Oil on canvas, 60 x 69. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD922), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 7 Jan. 1941, delivered 28 Mar. 1941 > Salford Art Gallery (1947). EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Institute of Adult Education (2) 1941, Tate Gallery 1965, Whitechapel Gallery 1972, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 99. For a discussion of this painting by Tom Lubbock, with particular reference to the use of a detail of it on the cover of the Penguin edition of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (from 1966 to 1980), click here.

Conversation Piece, 1956. Pen and ink, 18 x 13.5. Illustration for Roberts, Cometism and Vorticism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 2) – the conversationalists are Sir John Rothenstein, Michael Ayrton and Wyndham Lewis. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 122

Ernest Cooper, Esq., c.1949. Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.5. Ernest Cooper (1910–98) was the owner of the successful London Health Centre Ltd health-food business, which he had established in 1934 and which by the late 1940s had branches in Kensington, Golders Green and the West End of London, and later in Oxford, Buxton and Kingston upon Thames. Sarah Roberts had got to know him through his first wife, Sadie, who for a time worked at the Ben Uri Gallery, which had dealings with her brother, Jacob Kramer, and she introduced him to her husband. From the late 1940s he was to become Roberts’s chief patron, eventually acquiring some 20 oils and nearly 50 other works (mainly watercolours), mostly bought direct from the artist and including some illustrations for the LHC. There was later some acrimony towards Cooper in relation to his purchase of Trooping the Colour at a sixth of its asking price in 1959, and he ceased to be a patron of Roberts. In 1972 he staged a large exhibition of his William Roberts collection at his local gallery – Worthing Art Gallery – and eventually the collection was broken up and sold through auction in the 1980s and 1990s. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (estimate £1,000–£1,500; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1949, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972. Cf. Playmates 1957

Sadie Cooper, Mrs, 1955? Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.5. Sadie Cooper, previously Sadie Buchler, née Cates (1909?–68), was the first wife of William Roberts’s chief patron, Ernest Cooper (1910–98). In 1945–50 she was curator at the Ben Uri Gallery, where she met Sarah Roberts, whose brother, Jacob Kramer, had dealings with the gallery. Sadie and Sarah became good friends, taking music classes together at the Mary Ward Centre, and it was through their wives that Roberts and Ernest Cooper met. She was also secretary of the Hampstead branch of the Fabian Society for a while. This portrait seems to have been designed as a companion piece to Ernest Cooper, Esq. c.1949 (q.v.), but as the Coopers did not marry until mid-1955 it has been assumed that it was painted then. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (estimate £1,000–£1,500; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972

A. E. Coppard, 1927. Pencil, 27.3 x 24.1. Drawing used as a frontispiece to The New Coterie no. 6 (summer and autumn 1927). The short-story writer and poet Alfred Edgar Coppard (1878–1957) was born in Folkestone, the eldest of four children of a tailor and a housemaid. Aged 9, he left school to help provide for his family when his father died, and by the age of 20 he had worked for a street seller of paraffin and firewood, an auctioneer, a cheesemonger, a soap agent and a carrier. After several years in the office of an engineering firm, in 1907 he moved to Oxford as a clerk in an ironworks. He used prize money won as a spare-time athlete to buy books and develop his early taste for reading and study, and on 1 Apr. 1919, with savings of £50, he left his job to become a full-time writer. His first collection of stories, Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, was published in 1921, and many others followed. His stories often present a woman’s point of view, and sympathise with the misfit and the underdog faced with the unpredictability of life. Coppard was the uncle of George Coppard, a British soldier who served with the Machine Gun Corps during the First World War and whose 1969 memoir With a Machine Gun to Cambrai inspired WR’s On the Wire 1972. PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > ? > Christie’s 2–13 Dec. 2016 (online sale; £10,625). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937

(recto) Corner of the Bar, A, c.1950. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 9.5 x 6.5
(verso) Drinkers, c.1950. Inscribed ‘Pub’. Red pencil on lined paper from notebook, 6.3 x 8.7
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Côte d’Azur – study, 1949. Inscribed ‘Le Coti D’or’ (sic). Pencil, squared, 13 x 19. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Côte d’Azur, 1949 (signed and dated and inscribed ‘Le Cote d’Azur’). Pen and watercolour, 25.0 x 36.4. ‘Despite the inscription Mrs Roberts, who is the model, says that this shows her sunbathing in a green field outside Oxford‘ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Coterie No. 3, December 1919. Cover for literary magazine published Dec. 1919 (shows five figures holding the title plate, in black and white on a blue background; the same design was used on the title page). Page size 19 x 25.5. Coterie was an avant-garde periodical founded and edited by Oxford University law student Chaman Lal, who edited nos. 1–5; no. 6/7 was edited by Russell Green. It was published by Hendersons (aka The Bomb Shop), at 66 Charing Cross Road, London, and contributors included T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, Amy Lowell, Conrad Aiken, Richard Aldington, H. D., A. E. Coppard, Edith Sitwell, Osbert Sitwell, R. C. Trevelyan, Roy Campbell, Herbert Read, Harold Munro, Douglas Goldring, Edward Wadsworth, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, André Derain, Amadeo Modigliani, Nina Hamnett and Moise Kisling. No. 4 featured a similarly modernistic cover by David Bomberg; the covers of other issues were Beardsleyesque or traditional.

Country Scene (aka The Farm and A Rustic Scene), 1922–3. (Painted while staying at Pett Level, the Sussex home of John Knewstub, the director of the Chenil Gallery.) Oil on canvas, 48.9 x 59.7. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1923) > Wakefield City Art Gallery (1935). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Wakefield 1936, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: New Coterie, no. 2 (spring 1926), opposite p. 48

Couple Harvesting (aka Scything), c.1953. Pen and ink, 12.5 x 12.5. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972, although it is thought that this drawing was first used on the inside cover of the third (revised) edition of the LHC booklet Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health in 1953. It was used in the 1956 reprint of that revised edition. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (as Scything), Abbott & Holder 1999

Couple Reclining by the Thames, see Man and Woman Reclining by the Thames, 1957?

Couples, date uncertain. Pencil, 9.5 x 10. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983?

Court Scene with Judge, see Truth and Nothing But the Truth, The, 1978

Covered Punt, A, see Windy Day, A, 1941

(verso) Cow’s Head, A and Man and Gate, c.1922. Black chalk, 16.5 x 21.6
(recto) Mounting Horses (aka A Racecourse Scene), c.1922. Black chalk and pencil, 16.5 x 18.4
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as A Racecourse Scene / Man, Gate and Horse’s Head)

Cow-men, c.1942. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

(verso) Cows
(recto) Apple, The, date unknown, 1940–45? – suggest 1944 (‘study for the background of an Oxford punting picture’ – Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Pencil, 15 x 17.3
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(verso) Cows – study for The Punters c.1943. Pencil
(recto) Mothers – study, 1944–5. Pencil, 18.0 x 12.8
PROVENANCE: Sally Hunter Gallery > private collection > Osborne Samuel Gallery

Cows and Gate (study for Country Scene?) and Mounting Horses, c.1922. Two drawings on one sheet of paper (25.5 x 14.6): black chalk 16 x 12.5 and black and red chalk 8.5 x 7.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Cows and Gate, see Gate, The, 1975

(recto) Crabs, c.1958 (also dated c.1960 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Pencil, 12 x 17.5
(verso) Study of Feet
PROVENANCE: George and Maura McClelland > Whyte’s, Dublin, 25 July 2016 (2,100 euros). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Crabs, c.1958? Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 33.5. PROVENANCE: Phillips 14 Nov. 1989 (£4,162). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Creole, The (aka Portrait of a Negress – Hélène Yelin), 1923. Oil on canvas, 60.7 x 50.5. The Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue states, ‘The model for [The Creole] was Mrs Helène Yelin, who also posed for a bust by Epstein of 1919.’ In his Jacob Epstein Sculptor (London: Faber and Faber, 1963) Richard Buckle says of this bust (Hélène), ‘Hélène was a half-caste married to a musician named W. Yellin [sic]’ (p. 102), and this is echoed in the catalogue raisonné in Evelyn Silber’s The Sculpture of Epstein: With a Complete Catalogue (Oxford: Phaidon, 1986): ‘Wife of W. Yellin, musician’ (p. 145). She is also depicted with Jacob Kramer at the Harlequin Café, in Soho, in WR’s The Joke 1923, and in his memoir ‘The Twenties’ WR recalled, ‘The Harlequin was becoming popular, due no doubt to its feminine patrons, whose vocal talents turned the place at times into a sort of Café Chantant, when the dark-skinned Helene sang the “Raggle-Taggle Gypsies, O!” or Gypsy Lang sang Casey Jones the engine-driver’s lament … ’ Autobiographical notes by John Roberts in the Tate archive recall that Hélène and her two sons were neighbours of the Robertses in Albany Street in the early 1920s, and also ‘camping holidays and cycling holidays. One with Helene, cycling. There was much laughter; she was looking for her forbears [sic] or relations, presumably white, in G[loucester]shire.’ She later moved to Brussels, and in her memoir The Dark and the Bright (1989/2007) the Austrian writer and journalist Hilde Spiel mentions a mid-1930s trip to Antwerp with Hélène, whom she believed to be Egyptian. Yale University Library holds a letter from Hélène to Alice B. Toklas dated 15 August 1946 and commiserating with Toklas on the death of her partner Gertrude Stein, Hélène having apparently met the couple in Brussels. A cast of the Epstein bust is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society (1923) > City Museum and Art Gallery (now the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery), Stoke-on-Trent (1936/7). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Manchester 1930, Tate Gallery (1) 1935, Wolverhampton 1937, Whitechapel Gallery 1937, Tate Gallery 1946, Arts Council 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Tate Britain 2014, Tate Britain ‘Walk Through British Art’ display 2022–3

(recto) Cricket – study, 1938 (also dated c.1936). Pencil, 25.4 x15.2
(verso, lower half) Artist and Easel, c.1931. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery (2001) > ? > Court Gallery (2009) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Woking 2011

Cricket, 1938 (signed, inscribed with title and dated). Pencil and yellow wash, squared, 50 x 30. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries (1949) > Edward Le Bas (1965) > Christie’s 3 Mar. 1978 (£1,300) > private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1941, Redfern Gallery 1942, Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 25 gns), Tate Gallery 1952, Royal Academy Diploma Gallery 1963, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Studio 124 (1942), p. 106

(recto) Critic Intervenes, The (Roger Fry), c.1948. Pencil, 15.2 x 13.3. ‘The critic, book in hand, restrains the inspired artist. The watercolour of this subject is in the British Museum’ – Gillian Jason Gallery 1990
(verso) Milking Goats
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12708). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Critic Intervenes, The (aka The Critic Demonstrates), c.1948. Pen and black ink and watercolour, 38 x 28 (‘A watercolour where the critic does not resemble Roger Fry is in the collection of the British Museum’– Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 ref. above). PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > British Museum (1953). This is probably the Roberts Drawing bought for the CAS by Wilfrid Evill in 1953. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 82

Crossing the Minch – study, 1946–7. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Crossing the Minch, 1946–7. Pen, ink and watercolour, 35.5 x 25.5. This is one of a series of four drawings inspired by a visit that William and Sarah Roberts made to the Outer Hebrides: ‘this one commemorates a particularly unpleasant sea-crossing undergone by the artist and his wife’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 29. The trip was likely to have been planned with Sarah’s friend Victoria Kingsley, a collector of international folk music, who had become interested in Hebridean songs and spent some time on Barra learning Gaelic. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£5,175). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns), Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972. Cf. Evening in Oban, Gateway to the Western Isles and Graveyard at Barra

(recto) Crowd, The, 1915. Pen and ink, 17.5 x 22.5. Cf. The Crowd c.1925
(verso) A House. (‘On verso there is another drawing entitled A House’ – Parkin Gallery 1976 catalogue.)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Sheffield 1945, Parkin Gallery 1976

Crowd, The, c.1925. Etching. (‘ … other titles for Roberts’ etchings are “Bathers”, “Boozers”, “Opera”, “Tarts”, “The crowd” and a “Portrait of John”. Very few impressions of any of these were made: a group appeared at Sotheby’s 5 December 1984, lots 364–369, where dated c.1920’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue.) Cf. The Crowd 1915

Crown and Anchor Board, The, c.1917. Pen, ink and sepia wash. PROVENANCE: Charlotte Robinson (purchased c.1985)

Crucifixion, The, c.1922. Crayon and wash, 18.4 x 27.2. PROVENANCE: Piccadilly Gallery > Bloomsbury Auctions 8 May 2008 (estimate £12,000–£15,000; unsold) > Imperial War Museum (2008, ART 17435). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Northampton 1993, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 80

Crucifixion, The – study, c.1922. Pen, pencil and wash, 35.7 x 49. PROVENANCE: Sir Michael Sadler > Contemporary Art Society and National Art Collection Fund > Cooper Art Gallery, Barnsley (1933). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leeds 1962, Tate Gallery 1965, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 13

Crucifixion, The – study, c.1922. Pencil and wash, 37.7 x 49. PROVENANCE: Sir Augustus Daniel > Leicester Galleries > Edward Le Bas > ? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Leicester Galleries 1951, Royal Academy Diploma Gallery 1963, Tate Gallery 1965

Crucifixion, The (aka The Scarlet Robe), c.1922 (dated by Methodist Education Committee as early 1920s; dated in the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue as 1919). Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4. ‘Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him … And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots . . . Then there were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left’ (Matthew 27:27–38). ‘William Roberts recalls that he painted this shortly after the end of his service as a war artist, at a time when he had some idea of entering for the Prix de Rome (for which two pictures were required). However, he never got round to painting the second and so the idea fell through. [Winning would have entailed a three-year residency in Rome, which may have made the idea unattractive given his domestic circumstances.] A little later, Rudolph Stulik … came to his studio and told him that he thought he had found a buyer for it. Roberts did not discover until afterwards that this was Augustus John’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 10. In 1923 the painting was exhibited at the Chenil Gallery under the title of The Scarlet Robe and was priced at £55 – the second most expensive painting in the exhibition. Augustus John would have seen it at this exhibition before buying it. PROVENANCE: Augustus John (‘The painting remained in the collection of Augustus John from around 1923 until it was sold by his estate in 1963’ – Methodist Education Committee catalogue, p. 28) > Christie’s 26 Apr. 1963 > Mayor Gallery > Methodist Education Committee. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Methodist Education Committee 1963 (regular touring). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 49

(recto) Curled-up Cat and Seated Woman (Paring?), 1920s. Black chalk, 14.7 x 22.5
(verso) Three Figures, c.1925. Black chalk, 14 x 21.3
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Customers in a Shoe-shop, see Shoe-shop, The, c.1954

Cyclists, c.1940. Pencil, squared, 15.5 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Cyclists – study (aka Women and Children on Bicycles), 1943–4. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 20.5 by 10.5. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > ? > Harry Moore-Gwyn British Pictures (2014)

Cyclists, 1943–4. Chalk and watercolour, 52.5 x 35. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mrs Helen G. Hutchison > Sotheby’s 12 Nov. 1975 > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965, Belgrave Gallery 1977, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 16

Cyclists, see Errand Boys, 1939

(verso) Dance Club, The – study, 1921. Black chalk
(recto) Brass Balls – study, c.1922. Pastel, 27.3 x 20.0
PROVENANCE: d’Offay Couper Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Dance Club, The (aka Jazz and The Jazz Party), 1921. Oil on canvas, 76 x 106.6. (A reproduction of this work in Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958 (1960) was dated 1923.) PROVENANCE: Muirhead Bone > Contemporary Art Society (1925) > Leeds City Art Gallery (1928). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Hamburg 1927 (as Das Konzert), Leeds 1928 (as Jazz), Tate Gallery 1965 (where dated 1921), Arts Council 1970, Berlin 1977, Arts Council (1) 1980, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Hayward Gallery 1991, Munich 2001, Museum of London 2003, Chichester 2007, Two Temple Place 2018, Tate Britain 2018. REPRODUCED: Hamburg 1927 catalogue (as Das Konzert)

Dance with Tambourines, 1918. Pencil, pen, ink and wash, squared, 12.5 x 10. PROVENANCE: Wyndham Lewis Society. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, pl. 9

Dancers, The – study, 1913–14. Tempera on board, 51.4 x 51.4, according to the Quinn sale catalogue – but the reproduction in New Age (see below) is not square. This drawing was published in the New Age in 1914 with an analysis by T. E. Hulme: ‘This drawing contains four figures. I could point out the position of these figures in more detail, but I think such detailed indication misleading. No artist can create abstract form spontaneously; it is always generated, or, at least, suggested, by the consideration of some outside concrete shapes. But such shapes are only interesting if you want to explain the psychology of the process of composition in the artist’s mind. The interest of the drawing itself depends on the forms it contains. The fact that such forms were suggested by human figures is of no importance.’ Roberts challenges this final sentence in his introduction to Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work (1957), where he states, ‘In an abstract design the concrete forms upon which it is based have greater importance than Hulme allows for … ’ This drawing was probably exhibited at the Vorticist exhibition at the Doré Gallery in 1915 as Drawing. It was one of four works selected by Ezra Pound in London for John Quinn, the American art collector, and transported to New York in 1916 and exhibited in the Vorticist exhibition at the Penguin Club in New York in 1917. It was purchased by John Quinn for £6 at the time of the exhibition, and became part of his collection. John Quinn died in 1924, and his collection was sold in 1927 (Vivien Greene, ‘Ezra Pound and John Quinn: The Penguin Club Exhibition 1917’, in The Vorticists (London: Tate, 2011)). PROVENANCE: WR > John Quinn > American Art Association Inc. 11 Feb. 1927 ($20, with Religion 1913–14) > R. B. Muller. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Doré Gallery 1915 (as Drawing?), New York 1917 (as The Dance), Hayward Gallery 1974 (photograph of). REPRODUCED: New Age 14, 24 (16 Apr. 1914), p. 753. LOST

Dancers, The, 1913–14. Oil on canvas. ‘This painting was borrowed by [Wyndham] Lewis to hang at the Rebel Art Centre in the Spring of 1914 and seems to be even more formalised than [the study]. An incredibly precocious achievement for a young artist of 18 years of age. Dancers was perhaps shown as The Dance in the 1914 Twentieth Century Art Exhibition and it was reproduced as Dancers in Blast No.1’ – Cork, Vorticism and its Allies, p. 40. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Rebel Art Centre 1914, Whitechapel Gallery 1914 (as The Dance?), New York 1917? (as The Dance? – cf. Cork, op. cit.). REPRODUCED: Blast No. 1 (illust. xiii, between pp. 96 and 97); Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 5. LOST

Dancers, The – study, 1919. Pencil. REPRODUCED: Wyndham Lewis (ed.), The Tyro: A Review of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture and Design, 1 (London: The Egoist Press, 1921), p. 9; Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England, p. 243. LOST

Dancers, The, 1919. (One of three panels – the third, of unknown subject, now lost – painted for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel in autumn 1919.) Oil on canvas, 152 x 116.5. PROVENANCE: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow (bought from Anthony d’Offay Gallery for £19,800). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1984, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 47

Dancers, The, c.1925. Pencil and watercolour, 21.6 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£1,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Dancing Bear, The (aka The Performing Bear) – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Dancing Bear, The (aka The Performing Bear), 1970 (signed and dated). Watercolour and pencil, squared, 45 x 34. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 23 Nov. 1994 > ? > Christie’s 4 June 1999 (£6,325) > ? > Bonhams 11 July 2006 (estimate £5,000–£7,000; unsold) > Bonhams 16 Sept. 2014 (£18,750) > ? > Christie’s 20 Nov. 2018 (£20,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971

Dancing to Music, see Spanish Rhythm – study, 1946–9

Daphne, Portrait of, 1942–3. Oil on canvas, 70 x 60. Born and educated in Brown’s Town, Jamaica, Daphne Dennison (1922–1997) was later a student at the Slade School of Art (where she won a prize for figure painting and a scholarship for a fourth year of study) during its Second World War evacuation to Oxford. She met John Roberts in Oxford, during the Roberts family’s time there, through their mutual friend Deirdre Knewstub, youngest daughter of John Knewstub of the Chenil Galleries. She afterwards taught painting and drawing at Montego High School for Girls in Jamaica, before making her home in London, where an exhibition of her paintings was held at the Commonwealth Art Gallery in July–Aug. 1973. She was the model for Venus in The Birth of Venus 1954. PROVENANCE: WR > Daphne Dennison > private collection (by descent). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

David, c.1942. Oil on canvas. This is possibly a portrait of John David Roberts, who published his Four Fables under the name ‘David Roberts’ in 1942. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, London Group 1947 (£65), Leicester Galleries (3) 1949

David Choosing the Three Days’ Pestilence, 1912. Pencil and ink on paper, 47.8 x 41.8. ‘And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men’ (2 Samuel 24:10–15). PROVENANCE: Professor Henry Tonks (1927) > ? > Tate Gallery (T06668, presented by Patricia Butchard, Valerie Bevis and Suzanne Tupper 1992). EXHIBITION HISTORY: University College 1927, Hayward Gallery 1974, Newcastle 2004, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Cork, Bomberg

Rhys Davies, 1926. Pencil, 31.7 x 19.1 The novelist and short-story writer Rhys Davies (1901–1978) was born near Tonypandy in a coal-mining area of Glamorgan, the fourth of six children of a grocer and a teacher. He left school aged fourteen and for the next five years worked in his father’s shop, while reading avidly – especially the French and Russian classics. His homosexuality made him feel uncomfortable in the male-dominated society of the Rhondda valley, and after living in Cardiff for a while he moved to London. His first published stories appeared in The New Coterie no. 2 (spring 1926), with this frontispiece illustration by Roberts, which was again used as a frontispiece when they were reprinted, with others, in The Song of Songs and Other Stories (London: E. Archer, 1927). Roberts also drew the cover for Davies’s first novel, The Withered Root. As well as other novels and short stories, Davies published an autobiography, Print of a Hare’s Foot (1969), in which he describes a visit made in 1927 to the German birthplace of his publisher, Charles Lahr, by a party which included Roberts, Davies and the writer H. E. Bates, as well as Lahr himself. (See The Prodigal Sets Out 1927–8.) PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > ? > Christie’s 23 Mar. 2011 (£3,000) > Stephen Ongpin Fine Art > the Rhys Davies Trust. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937, Plymouth 1938, Hull 1956, City of Bradford Art Gallery (date unknown)

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, 1939–40. Oil on canvas, 43 x 33. Richard MacGillivray Dawkins(1871–1955) was an archaeologist and a scholar of classical and modern Greek. After studying and for a time working in electrical engineering, a windfall enabled him at the age of twenty-six to enter Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read classics. After graduating he became associated with the British School at Athens, eventually becoming its director. He studied Greek dialects and was involved in excavations in Crete, at Sparta and elsewhere. From 1916 to 1919 he served as an intelligence officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, in eastern Crete. In 1920 he was appointed to a chair of Byzantine and modern Greek in the University of Oxford, and in 1922 he became a fellow of Exeter College (from which he retired in 1939, continuing to hold rooms there until his death) and an honorary fellow of his old college, Emmanuel. According to Osbert Lancaster, ‘No eccentric professor of fiction could possibly hold a candle to the reality of Professor Dawkins whose behaviour and appearance placed him … in a class by himself. Ginger-moustached, myopic, stooping, clad in one of a succession of suits which he ordered by postcard from the general store of a village in Northern Ireland, he always betrayed his whereabouts by a cackling laugh of great carrying power’ (With an Eye to the Future (London: John Murray, 1967), p. 77). He had known Ronald Firbank and Baron Corvo, and was an early collector of watercolours by Edward Lear. PROVENANCE: Emmanuel College, Cambridge (gift of Professor Nevill Coghill of Exeter and Merton colleges, June 1964). REPRODUCED: Frank Stubbings, Forty-Nine Lives: An Anthology of Portraits of Emmanuel Men (Cambridge: Emmanuel College, 1983)

Day Out on the River – study, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 20 x 25. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Day Out on the River, 1978 (dated). Oil on canvas, 63 x 76. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 9 June 1989 (£7,800) > ? > Whitford Fine Art > ? (2004) > Sotheby’s 11 May 2012 (£58,850) > ? > Sotheby’s 13 June 2018 (estimate £60,000–£80,000; unsold)

Kumari de Zoysa, 1946. Oil on canvas, 48 x 38. Kumari de Zoysa (b. 1931) was the daughter of WR’s friends A. P. and Eleanor de Zoysa; WR had painted her father’s portrait in c.1931. Her own portrait was painted during five sittings totalling 17 hours on 7–26 July 1946. She later graduated in political science from the London School of Economics, and then qualified as a barrister from Lincoln’s Inn. After further studies in Paris and London, she taught at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka and at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, and was an affiliated fellow of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass. Under her married name of Kumari Jayawardena, she is the author of several books, including the widely used text Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (1986). PROVENANCE: Kumari Jayawardena. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Colombo 1947

Paul de Zoysa, Dr, c.1931. Oil on canvas, 51 x 38. Agampodi Paulus de Zoysa (1890–1968) was born in Randombe, near Ambalangoda, in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1921 he went to Britain to further his education, and at the Buddhist mission in London he met Eleanor Hutton, whom he married in 1929; the witnesses at Hampstead Register Office were William and Sarah Roberts. Eleanor’s sister Doris – associate editor of Drama, a small magazine devoted to the theatre – was the fiancée of WR’s brother Michael, through whom de Zoysa had met Roberts, whose A Talk about Buddha presumably records a social occasion with him. Eleanor de Zoysa later claimed that Roberts liked painting people with darker skin, and he paid her husband 2s. 6d. for posing for a portrait. Having obtained an external London degree, been called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn, and obtained a PhD in anthropology at London University (his supervisor being Bronislaw Malinowski), in 1934 de Zoysa returned to Ceylon, where he practised law and was politically active. He also acquired a small printing press, and published his own English–Sinhala Dictionary and a major translation into Sinhala of the Tripitaka canon of Buddhist scriptures. In March 2009 a stamp commemorating his life as a social reformer and Buddhist scholar was issued in Sri Lanka. For more information see here. In 1946 WR painted de Zoysa’s daughter, Kumari. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1931) > Southampton Art Gallery (1952) > returned to the Roberts family > A. P. de Zoysa > Kumari Jayawardena. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (20 gns; ‘Simple as it looks, “Dr. Paul de Zoysa” is full of science – the way, for instance, the right angle made by the head and right shoulder, otherwise too obtrusive, is brought into order by the downward swing of the left lapel of the coat’ – The Times, 30 Oct. 1931)

Decapitations (aka Religious Subject), c.1912? Pen, ink and watercolour, ruled diagonally for transfer, the outlines pricked and incised, 61 x 61. On the left, three bearded figures in ankle-length tunics each hold up a severed bearded head. In the centre, a boy with a short sword in one hand gestures towards them with his other hand. An elderly bearded man bends down to him and also gestures towards the other three, apparently in anger; behind him a woman holds a baby, and to the right a figure with a sword in his right hand has his left hand in front of his lowered face. This may be the design that Roberts submitted under the title The Legend of Cuchulain (q.v.) for the competition held in connection with the ‘Exhibition of Designs for Mural Painting and for the Decoration of Schools and Other Buildings’ held at Crosby Hall, Chelsea, in 1912; although if this is the case it seems to be a very free mixture of elements of the Cuchulain legend. PROVENANCE: Sir Cyril Butler > ? > Redfern Gallery > Sir Ralph Richardson > Sotheby’s 15 May 1985 (as Mythical Subject, £10,000) > ? > Lord and Lady Irvine of Lairg. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Crosby Hall 1912 (as The Legend of Cuchulain)?, New English Art Club (1) 1925 (as Decapitations), Australia and New Zealand 1954 (as Religious Subject), Barbican Art Gallery 1989 (as Unidentified Subject), The Fleming Collection 2009 (as Mythical Subject)

Decorative Panel – study, 1912–14. Perhaps related to one of the 1912 mural projects for which Carpenters at Work and The Legend of Cuchulain were produced. PROVENANCE: Julian G. Lousada (1914). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914

Deep End, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Deep End’. Pencil, 13.5 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Deirdre (aka Portrait of a Girl with Plaits), c.1931. Oil on canvas. Deirdre Knewstub (1922–2011) was the youngest daughter of John Knewstub of the Chenil Galleries, where in 1923 Roberts had his first one-man show. In 1920–23 Roberts painted her cousins Katie (‘Kit’) and Fred Knewstub, who were brought up by John Knewstub and his wife after their parents died in 1914–15, and c.1934 he painted her sister Helen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931, 18 gns), Lefevre Gallery (1) and (2) 1935

Demolition, 1970. Pencil, 18.4 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > Denis Gamberoni Collection > Christie’s 21 Nov. 2007 (estimate £2,500–£3,500; unsold) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

(verso) Demolition Squad – study, 1941. Pencil, 17 x 12
(recto) Four Fables – study for a poem, 1942 (cf. other Four Fables 1942 works). Pencil, 17 x 12
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Demolition Squad – study, 1941. Pencil, 27 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Demolition Squad – study, 1941. Pencil, squared, 23.5 x 33.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Demolition Squad – study, 1941 (dated 1943 Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). Pencil and watercolour, 28.3 x 38.2. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 13 June 2018 (£125,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 48

Demolition Squad, 1941. Oil on canvas, 54 x 78. ‘Probably Christopher Wren’s Christ Church Greyfriars in Newgate Street, which was virtually destroyed in the extremely severe raid on December 29 1940’ – Art Fund website, accessed 20 Feb. 2018. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by A. E. Hendrickson > Gillian Jason Gallery > Corporation of London, Guildhall Art Gallery (purchased for £50,000 through Gillian Jason Gallery with the aid of the Art Fund 1992). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1941, Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976

Demolition Squad, c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 48 x 34. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue. Cf. Demolition Squad 1941

Demonstration, A, c.1919–20. Possibly this is The Riot 1920, or a study for it. Pencil, ink and watercolour, squared, 14.3 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery (1971) > Edgar Astaire > Christie’s, 25 June 2015 (£62,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated 1916–18)

Dentist, The, 1925. Oil on canvas, 69.5 x 59.5. PROVENANCE: Leicestershire County Council Artworks Collection, EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club (2) 1925, Whitechapel Gallery 1967

Dépit Amoureux, c.1960. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 12.7. The title – also the title of a play by Molière – was suggested by John Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Deposition, c.1908. Coloured chalks, 51 x 35 (signed). Roberts’s 1965 Arts Council retrospective included some works done in emulation of old-master drawings and dated to c.1908, and this probably dates from around the same time. PROVENANCE: Bearnes, Exeter, 15 Jan. 1986 (estimate £600–£1,000)

Deposition, see Deposition from the Cross, c.1926

Deposition from the Cross – study (aka Ladders), c.1926. Pencil, ink and red chalk, squared, 14.4 x 16.2. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > David Coates (1973) > ? (by descent) > Christie’s 18 June 2019 (£32,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY (as Ladders, dated 1916–18): Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Deposition from the Cross – other studies, see Descent from the Cross c.1926

Deposition from the Cross (aka Deposition), c.1926. Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 59.1. ‘When the even [after Christ’s crucifixion] was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed’ – Matthew 27:57–60. PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T07740). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as Deposition, 60 gns) >, Rotterdam 2011, Tate Britain 2012

Descent from the Cross – study for Deposition from the Cross, c.1926. Pencil, 20.7 x 23.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (8 gns), London Artists’ Association (2) 1933 (8 gns), Parkin Gallery 1976

Descent from the Cross – colour study for Deposition from the Cross, c.1926. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (7 gns)

Design – study, 1912–14. Perhaps related to one of the 1912 mural projects for which Carpenters at Work and The Legend of Cuchulain were produced. PROVENANCE: St John Hutchinson (1914). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914

Design for Dance Programme, c.1925 (undated, but it appears to show a 1920s scene). Pen, ink and wash, folded, 12.7 x 7.6. This small card with a strong diagonal design features a male figure in top hat and tails and a lively female dancer. It is signed at bottom right with a ‘WR’ monogram. PROVENANCE: Richard Morphet (keeper of the Tate Gallery modern collection at the time of the gift to the Tate archive, 1982) > Tate Gallery archive (TGA 8228/17). Cf. The Dance Club 1921

Dhaif Allah – study, 1925–6). Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 13)

Dhaif Allah – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 38 x 28. Study for a tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 14). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988

Dhaif Allah, 1925–6 (figures drawing water). Pen and ink, 38.1 x 28. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘The inhabitant of Kurr, the only sedentary Belluwi, hoary Dhaif-Allah, laboured day and night with his daughters in the little terraced plot which he had received from his ancestors. It was built out of the south edge of the valley in a bay defended against flood by a massive wall of unhewn stone. In its midst opened the well of clear cold water, above which stood a balance-cantilever of mud and rude poles’ (ch. 39). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 509

Died of Wounds, 1919. Watercolour, gouache, pen and ink, 44.5 x 53. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 1968 (£250) > ? > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1984 (£17,500) > ? > Richard Nagy (2010). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Morley College Gallery 1971

Dignity, 1925–6 (figure on horseback with attendants). Pen and ink, 36.5 x 28. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘Abdulla, on a white mare, came to us softly with a bevy of richly-armed slaves on foot about him, through the silent respectful salutes of the town’ (ch. 8). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 3). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988, Imperial War Museum 2005. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 23

Diners, The, 1919. (One of three panels painted for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel in autumn 1919.) Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 83.2. PROVENANCE: Rudolph Stulik (commissioned) > sold 1938 > Leicester Galleries > Tate Gallery (T00230). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1959, Arts Council 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 53

Diners, The – study, 1968. Pencil and watercolour, 18.8 x 15. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Oct. 1989 (£4,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Diners, The (aka The Luncheon and The Celebration), 1968. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Isleworth Foundation, Florida, USA (purchased Oct. 1989). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969, Parkin Gallery 1976, Albemarle Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 20; House and Garden, May 1989

Discerning Amateur, The, c.1946. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949

Discs, 1978. Pencil and watercolour, 17.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12654). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Discs (aka The Music Lovers),1978 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6). PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold (1983) > Christie’s 7 June 2002 (£7,768). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979, Stow-on-the-Wold 1983

Discussion, The (aka Discussion in a Café and The Café) – study for The Restaurant, 1929. Pencil and watercolour, 25 x 20. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > Bristol Art Gallery (1959). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (7 gns), Arts Council (2) 1980

Discussion in a Bar, see Café Royal Scene, c.1921

Discussion in a Café, 1921. Pen, ink and watercolour, 40.6 x 50.8. It was presumably this picture, priced at £30 in the catalogue of the Nov. 1923 Chenil Galleries exhibition, that Siegfried Sassoon was referring to when, on 26 Nov. 1923, he wrote to T. E. Lawrence, ‘I was reminded of you at Roberts’s exhibition – (I purchased a drawing of some ghastly ghouls “in a Café”, for £30, out of sheer admiration for the efficiency of the workmanship.)’ PROVENANCE: Siegfried Sassoon? (v.s.) > ? > John Christopherson > Sotheby’s 15 May 1985 (£19,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. Waiting in the Café c.1923, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Discussion in a Café, see Discussion, The, 1929 and Restaurant, The, 1929

Disembarkation, see Dock Gates, 1920

Distinguished Visitors at the Tate – study, 1965. Pencil, 10.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12740). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Distinguished Visitors at the Tate, 1965. (‘The “visitors”, all famous artists of the past [seated surrounded by abstract pictures], are as follows (seated, from left to right): El Greco, Titian, Velasquez, Rubens; (standing, from left to right) Michelangelo, Raphael, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya and Cézanne’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 30.) Pencil and watercolour, 31 x 40. PROVENANCE: Mrs Marshall Sisson. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: RA Illustrated, 1965, p. 25

Dive Bouteille, La – study, 1973. Pencil, squared, 12.7 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Dive Bouteille, La (aka The Boozers and Los Borrachos), 1973. Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 75. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1974, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Dock Gates – study, 1920. Pencil and watercolour, 22.9 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Lord Clwyd. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1962 (as The Docks), Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971

Dock Gates – study (aka Shipyard), 1920. Pencil and crayon on paper, squared, 36 x 54 (approx.). The sky has been lightly colour red – no other colour is used in this pencil drawing. A further study for this work also exists. PROVENANCE: Osbert Sitwell > Estate of Sir Reresby Sitwell. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Renishaw Hall 1998, Renishaw Hall 2010

Dock Gates (aka Disembarkation), 1920. Oil on canvas, 106.7 x 137.2. PROVENANCE: Edward Wadsworth > Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (£42) > P. G. Konody > Lord Sieff of Brimpton (1931) > Sotheby’s 23 Apr. 1969 > Anthony d’Offay (£3,700). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (2) 1922 (£150) (‘Mr. Roberts, in his “Dock Gates,” has certainly achieved a curious, intricate, and vital design, but he has made made great sacrifices of several accustomed elements of beauty to achieve it, and the picture leaves us bewildered both by what it has and by what it lacks’ – The Times, 18 Oct. 1922), Chenil Galleries 1923 (‘“Dock Gates,” to name only one example, shows that Mr. Roberts would be the ideal decorator of a municipal or commercial building, and it is indeed remarkable that this picture has not been secured by one of our shipping companies’ – The Times, 9 Nov. 1923), Edinburgh 1924 (‘To compare the dignified sense of design and the finely accomplished craftsmanship, the respect for humanity, and the infective sense of the inwardness of life, in “The Pilgrimage,” by Alphonse Legros, with the forced rhythms, the arbitrary treatment of form, and the mechanical conception of life and action, in the “Dock Gates,” by Mr. William Roberts, is to become aware that insight, refinement and reverence are more valuable things in art than novelty of execution and intellectual theory, however up to date, for their own sake’ – The Scotsman, 9 May 1924), London Group 1928, Copenhagen/Oslo 1956, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1982. REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 2, 7 (Jan. 1927), p. 3

Dock Head, 1920–25. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mayor Gallery 1926. Cf. Dock Gates 1920 and Port of London c.1922

Dog-lovers – study, 1971 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 19 x 13.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Dog-lovers, 1971. Oil on canvas, 75 x 55. PROVENANCE: Private collection, New Zealand. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972, Parkin Gallery 1972, Parkin Gallery 1976 REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 30

Dogs of the Beni Hillal – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Preliminary sketch for what (reversed) became the tailpiece drawing The Dogs of Harith in Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Signed top right and inscribed with the title bottom right, ‘420’ bottom left and ‘The old hermit[?]’ top left. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 25 (part))

Dogs of the Beni Hillal – an Arabian Legend (aka Dogs of the Hillal Ali and Wolves and Men), 1925. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 36. (Painted in Fitzroy Street at a time when William Roberts was working on illustrations for the de-luxe edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom.) ‘In these slow nights [in Azrak] we were secure against the world. For one thing, it was winter, and in the rain and the dark few men would venture either over the labyrinth of lava or through the marsh – the two approaches to our fortress; and, further, we had ghostly guardians. The first evening we were sitting with the Serahin, Hassan Shah had made the rounds, and the coffee was being pounded by the hearth, when there rose a strange, long wailing round the towers outside. Ibn Bani seized me by the arm and held to me, shuddering. I whispered to him, “What is it?” and he gasped that the dogs of the Beni Hillal, the mythical builders of the fort, quested the six towers each night for their dead masters’ – T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, ch. 79. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Dec. 1955, £18) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£409,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (2) 1926, Leicester Galleries (2) 1927 (as Dogs of the Hillal Ali), Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965

Dogs of Harith, The – study, 1925–6. Red chalk and pencil, 28 x 23.5 (the paper has been cut; both pieces are drawn on). The composition is that of Dogs of the Beni Hillal – an Arabian Legend 1925 and is less elaborate than that in the final drawing. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 1). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988

Dogs of Harith, The, 1925–6. Red ink and pencil, 33.5 x 27.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘The greatest asset of Feisal’s cause in this work up North was Sherif Ali ibn el Hussein … His pride broke out in his war-cry, “I am of the Harith”, the two-thousand-year-old clan of freebooters’ (ch. 79). The composition is more elaborate than that in the study and in the related Dogs of the Beni Hillal – an Arabian Legend 1925. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 2). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988, Imperial War Museum 2005. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 192

Dogs of the Hillal Ali, see Dogs of the Beni Hillal – an Arabian Legend, 1925

Dominoes (study for Jeu, aka The Draughts Players), c.1915. Pencil and ink, 19.0 x 16.0. Roberts suggests this study ‘could be a rough draft for one of those lost pictures, that was named in the [1915] Grosvenor Gallery catalogue as “Le Jeu”’ (Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs (1969), where he appears to be misremembering the location of ‘Vorticist Exhibition. The Vorticist Group: The First Exhibition of the Vorticist Group’, which was held at the Doré Gallery in June–July 1915). Though it is inscribed with the title ‘Dominoes’, the players are clearly playing a board game. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 1968 > Anthony d’Offay Gallery > ? > Hamet Gallery > private collection (8 Jan. 1973) > Bonhams 13 June 2018 (£12,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Hayward Gallery 1974. REPRODUCED: Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs

Don’t ’e know Jarge, tha be no Resurrection (aka Artist in a Cemetery), c.1977. Watercolour, 61.5 x 50.5. John Roberts comments in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 catalogue, ‘Title scratched out, without it, what meaning?’ EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Don’t ’e know Jarge, tha be no Resurrection, 1977. Pencil and watercolour, 22.2 x 15.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12725). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Don’t ’e know Jarge, tha be no Resurrection, 1977. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Donkey Rides, 1980. Two drawings on one sheet of paper, ‘pinned to his drawing board on the day on which he died [20 Jan. 1980]’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue. Pencil, 13 x 15, and pencil, 15 x 21. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Doorstep, date uncertain. Red chalk, 16 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Doorstep, The – study (aka Miniskirts), 1971. Pencil, squared, 19.0 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Miniskirts)

Doorstep (Miniskirts), The (aka Doorsteps), 1971. Pencil and watercolour, 47.0 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (as The Doorstep (Miniskirts)), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Miniskirts (The Doorstep))

Double Bass, The (aka Cellist), date uncertain. Red crayon, 9 x 6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Dove, The – study, 1961. Pencil, squared, 17.5 x 11. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Dove, The – study, 1961. Pencil and watercolour, squared, signed and inscribed with title, 43.8 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > ? > Sotheby’s 7 Nov. 1990 (£2,750) > ? > Sotheby’s 10 Mar. 1993 > Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold > private collection > Christie’s 22 Mar. 2023 (£12,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Manchester (2) 1973

Dove, The, 1961. (‘The dove was intended as an allusion to the Immaculate Conception’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 183 x 117. PROVENANCE: WR > Christie’s 8 June 1990 (£35,200) > Christie’s 21 Nov. 1995 (estimate £30,000–£40,000) > Isleworth Foundation, Florida, USA > Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 2006 (£20,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1961, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1973, Reading 1983. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 24

Draughts Players, The, see Jeu, 1915

Drawing of Party, see Mandolines and Guitars, 1925–6

Draymen, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Watneys Lowering barrels’. Pencil on lined paper from a notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Draymen, see Beer Barrels Being Put in a Cellar, date uncertain

Dream, The, see Soldier’s Dream, The – study, 1972

Dream, The, see Dream of Dancing Women – study, 1978

Dream of Dancing Women – study (aka The Dream), 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 15 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Dream of Dancing Women, 1978 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > Offer Waterman (2018) > ? > Sotheby’s 18–24 Nov. 2021 (online sale, estimate £30,000–£50,000; unsold) > Goodman Fine Art > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2023 (£10,240). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Dressing Room, The – study, 1966. Pencil, 14.6 x 18.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12709, as Beauty Queens: Study for The Dressing Room)

Dressing Room, The, 1966 (dated). Pen, black ink, black chalk and watercolour, squared, 45.1 x 32.4. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Mar. 1973 > ? > Christie’s 14 Nov. 1975 (£340) > ? > Christie’s 2 Mar. 1979 (£650) > ? > Lowell Libson Ltd 2002 (on offer at £18,000) > ? > Roseberys London 25 May 2021 (£31,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Lowell Libson 2002

Dressmakers, – studies, see Try-on, The, 1931

Dressmakers, c.1931. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. ‘S [Sarah Roberts] says it was Helen Whitaker (now Lady Brook [see Helen c.1934]) and herself who were trying the dress. She remembers the tulips as being present’ – John Roberts, note in the Tate archive. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > Victoria Art Gallery, Bath (gift, 1944). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (30 gns), Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Herbert Read, Art Now (London: Faber, 1933), pl. 39 (where dated 1932)

(verso) Drinkers, c.1950. Inscribed ‘Pub’. Red pencil on lined paper from notebook, 6.3 x 8.7
(recto) Corner of the Bar, A, c.1950. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 9.5 x 6.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Drinking Fountain, The, see Fountain, The, 1967

Drop Curtain for the Carmago Ballet see Ballet Rehearsal – study for Camargo Ballet drop curtain, c.1931

Drum, The, 1957. Chalk and watercolour, 50.5 x 36. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 4 Mar. 1998 (£3,910)

Drums, The – study, c.1957? Pencil, 17.8 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12692)

Drums, The, c.1957? Black and white chalks, pencil and watercolour, 49.5 x 36. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£5,405). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Postcard published by Ernest Cooper

During a Battle, c.1918. Pencil and watercolour, 15.8 x 25.4. Inscribed ‘The Arras Victory’. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1885). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Madrid 2008

(verso) Dustman, 1934. Red chalk, 15 x 9.7
(recto) Piggy-back Fight – study for a detail from The Gutter, 1934–5. Pencil, 17 x 11.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Frederick James Dykes, Professor, 1932. Pencil on paper. After studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, Dykes (1880–1957) taught in HM Gunnery and Torpedo Schools, Portsmouth, in 1903–6 before returning to Cambridge as a lecturer (1906–37). He was tutor of Trinity College 1919–33 and proctor of Cambridge University 1912–15 and 1927–32, as well as holding various industrial appointments. PROVENANCE: Trinity College, Cambridge

E. Sub in Action, 1917 (signed and dated). Watercolour, 35.6 x 25.4. REPRODUCED: Colour 8, 4 (May 1918), p. 92

8 Cubist Designs by William Roberts RA – cover artwork, 1969. Ink, 27 x 18.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Eight Figures Walking, 1919–20. Pen and black and red inks, 19.5 x 14.8. PROVENANCE: Yale Center for British Art, The William K. Rose and Eugene A. Carroll Collection (B2010.6.29)

Elsie (aka Portrait of a Young Woman), 1922–3. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. Correspondence between Roberts’s son, John, and York City Art Gallery in 1989–90 about the gallery’s Portrait of a Young Woman by WR suggests that the sitter was a farmer’s daughter called Elsie, who helped look after the young Deirdre Knewstub (1922–2011) at Pett Level, the Sussex house of John Knewstub, founder of the Chenil Galleries in Chelsea, where in 1923 Roberts had his first one-man show. This picture is therefore probably Elsie, exhibited in that show. The catalogue of Roberts’s 1965 retrospective states that his Country Scene (aka A Rustic Scene), there dated to 1922–3, was ‘painted while staying with the Knewstubs at Pett Level in Sussex’. PROVENANCE: Mayor Gallery > York City Art Gallery (1982), from where stolen in 1999 but since recovered. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Mayor Gallery 1990

Embrace, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Embrace’. Pencil, 9.5 x 7.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Empty Glass, The, 1975. Watercolour, 48 x 35. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985. REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue

English Cubists 1914, The, 1974. Ink. Cover artwork for Roberts, In Defence of English Cubists

English Gothic, c.1918. Pencil and red ink, 14.5 x 18. A study for a never-published illustration for Osbert Sitwell’s poem ‘English Gothic’, which appeared without illustration in Wheels 1919, although Roberts did contribute the cover illustration and two unrelated endpieces for this edition. Roberts’s image relates to the middle section of the poem:
… The swans who float
– Wings whiter than the foam of sea –
Up the episcopal smooth moat,
Uncurl their necks to ring for tea.

At this sign, in the plump green close,
The Deans say grace …
PROVENANCE: Browse & Darby > Croft Collection > Sotheby’s 4 June 2002 (£3,760). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

English Gothic (aka Figures), c.1918. Ink and watercolour, 28 x 33 (approx.). Another version of Roberts’s drawing English Gothic, an unpublished illustration for Osbert Sitwell’s poem of the same name, which appeared without illustration in Wheels 1919; the black ink drawing has sections filled in with grey, brown and green watercolour. PROVENANCE: Osbert Sitwell > Estate of Sir Reresby Sitwell. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Renishaw Hall 1998, Renishaw Hall 2010

Ennui – study, 1972 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 41 x 30. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Ennui, 1972. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 34

Enthusiasts, The, see Avant-guard, The, 1970

Errand Boy, see Boy on a Bicycle, 1930

Errand Boys – study, 1939 (dated as c.1937 Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). Pencil, 20.3 x 25.4. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Errand Boys – study (aka Bicycle Boys and Cyclists and White Mud Guards – inscribed ‘White Mud Guards’), 1939. Watercolour and pencil, 20.3 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£3,606). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as White Mud Guards (study for Bicycle Boys))

Errand Boys, The (aka Bicycle Boys), 1939. Signed and dated. Oil on canvas, 81 x 102. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 9 Nov. 1988 (£57,200) > ? > Jonathan Clark Fine Art > ? (2001) > Sotheby’s 17 Nov. 2015 (£485,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Oxford 1939, Leicester Galleries (1) 1941 (as Street Scene)?, Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Rotterdam 1977. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958 (where dated 1936–7) and Modern Painters 2/4 (winter 1989/90)

Etretat, see Boule Players at Etretat, 1976

Evening Edition, The, see News, The, 1967

Evening in Oban – study, 1946–7. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Evening in Oban, 1946–7. Pen, ink and watercolour, 35.5 x 25.5. This is one of a series of four drawings inspired by a visit that William and Sarah Roberts made to the Outer Hebrides. The trip was likely to have been planned with Sarah’s friend Victoria Kingsley, a collector of international folk music, who had become interested in Hebridean songs and spent some time on Barra learning Gaelic. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Miss H. Grant > Sotheby’s 5 May 1987 > Bonhams 26 Sept. 2007 (£10,200)> ? > Bonhams 14 Nov. 2012 (estimate £20,000–£30,000; unsold); Christie’s, South Kensington, 19 Mar. 2015 (estimate £15,000–£25,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns). Cf. Crossing the Minch, Gateway to the Western Isles and Graveyard at Barra

Ex-serviceman, The, see Salute, The, c.1962

Execution in a Canyon, suggest 1916–17 (also dated c.1919). Pen, brush, black ink and brown wash, 35.5 x 25.5. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 20 June 1995 (estimate £2,500–£3,500; unsold) > ? > Huntington Library and Art Museum. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1958

Factory Agitation, see Leadenhall Market, 1913

Faggot Collector, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 17.5 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: ex Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (estimate £600–£800; unsold) > Sotheby’s 23 Nov. 2006 (£1,020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. Old Man Carrying Wood c.1944

Fair Swings – study for Hampstead Fair, 1950. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 35.5 x 23. PROVENANCE: Harold Hutchison > Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (£5,280) > Corporation of London, Guildhall Art Gallery

(recto) Family, The (aka The Peasants) – study, 1934. Pencil, 18 x 15.5
(verso) Sarah in a Shawl, c.1934. Pencil, 7.5 x 6.8
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Family, The – study, 1934 (aka Man and Woman Feeding a Child). Pencil, 20 x 17. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£4,532). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: William Johnstone, Creative Art in England, from the Earliest Times to the Present (London: Stanley Nott, 1936), pl. 159. Cf. The Family 1931

Family, The, 1934. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Mrs Robin Brook (née Helen Knewstub)

Family, The (aka The Peasants, dated 1935 in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964), 1934. Oil on canvas, 51 x 43. In ‘’33?’, according to notes left by John Roberts, the Roberts family were offered the use for two or three weeks of the flat in Alicante of the brother of their friend Agustín de Irízar, lecturer in Spanish at Leeds University, whom they knew through Jacob Kramer. They initially aborted their trip when, arriving at Victoria station, they found the fare was £5 more than expected, but the next day the London rain persuaded them to go after all, and this picture was a result. PROVENANCE: Lefevre Gallery > Leeds City Art Gallery (bought 1935). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935 (‘The Family [is] the simplest and grandest of the compositions. This might pass for a Holy Family of the Renaissance. There is a certain sweet humour even in the fiendishness with which the child rejects the spoon and breaks the round outline of the design with spiky fingers, while the figures of father and mother are concentrated into a single expression of service and solicitude’ – Philip Hendy, ‘Art – William Roberts’, London Mercury, Mar. 1935), Copenhagen 1956, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 16

Family, The, 1942. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 17.5 x 11.3. The title seems odd for the subject matter, and the date looks as though it may have been fitted in at a date after the picture was signed. Could this be The Meeting c.1944 shown at Leicester Galleries (2) 1945? PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > M. Lewis. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Family, The, see Bath-night, 1929

Family, The, see Artist and Family at Marston, 1942

Family, The, see Beggars, The, 1974

Family Bathing, see Bathers, c.1925

Family and Dog (aka A Family Group), c.1926. Pencil and watercolour, 38.3 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (as A Family Group, in lot 138 with Street Acrobats 1923 and French Sailors on the Deck of a Ship c.1926; £18) > Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

(verso) Family Group, c.1928. Black chalk, 17.3 x 11.5
(recto) Casualty on a Stretcher, c.1928. Pencil, 16.2 x 11.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Family Group, see Grandchild, The, 1973

Family Group, A, see Family and Dog, c.1926

Family Outing, see Swans, The – study, 1972

Family at Play, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 12 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Dreweatts, 19 Oct. 2022 (£5,850)

Family at the Seaside (aka Scene on the Seashore), c.1926. Pencil and watercolour, 50.1 x 25.7. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (as Scene on the Seashore, in lot 137 with The Connoisseur c.1923? and Male life study, c.1926?; £6 10s.) > Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

Family Scene, see War Baby, The – study, 1946

Fan, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Fan’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 13 x 7.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fanfare – study, c.1921. Pencil and watercolour, 19.9 x 14.5. Preliminary wrapper design for an issue of Fanfare: A Musical Causerie. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (E.222-1981). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Fanfare, c.1921. Magazine size octavo (approx. 22 x 14). Cover design for issue number 3 of Fanfare: A Musical Causerie, a short-lived arts periodical edited by Leigh Henry, seven issues of which were published between Oct. 1921 and Jan. 1922 and included fanfares composed by, among others, Vaughan Williams, Poulenc, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Roussell and Satie, and literary contributions from Jean Cocteau, John Rodker and the like. E. McKnight Kauffer, Alan Odle, Randolph Schwabe and Ethelbert White were among the other cover designers. Goodwin & Tabb, the publisher, was based next door to Roberts’s former home in Percy Street. The same drawing was used on the cover of Arthur Bliss’s score MlŽe Fantasque, said to be 'in the Press' in an advertisement by Goodwin & Tabb on the back cover of The Tyro no. 2 (early 1922), but eventually not published until 1924, and then by J. Curwen & Sons.

Fantastic Ballet, A (aka Drawing – reproduced with this title), undated – suggest 1920. Signed and inscribed ‘A Fantastic Ballet’ (unclear). Pen, ink and wash, 40 x 29. PROVENANCE: WR > Dr Henry Caplan > private collection, Cambridge (by descent) > Cheffins Fine Art, Cambridge, 2 May 2013 (£64,168). REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 2, 7 (Jan. 1927), p. 5 (where credited to Brook Street Galleries)

Fantasy for Flute – cover design, 1942. Pen and pencil, 12.7 x 17.8. Cover design for a satirical poem by [John] David Roberts (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12734). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Fantasy for Flute – The Professor’s Dream –study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Fantasy for Flute (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942), 1942. Pencil, squared, 19 x 14. ‘For Horror ! as he slept the sage / imagined himself in a cage / the subject of experiments / designed to test his common-sense / and clarify the mental voids of certain / learned anthropoids. / In evening dress of faultless trim / nine chimpanzees surrounded him, / discussing in an undertone / exhibit three, now being shown.’ PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Fantasy for Flute – The Professor’s Dream, 1942. Pen and ink, 22.9 x 17.8. ‘For Horror ! as he slept the sage / imagined himself in a cage / the subject of experiments / designed to test his common-sense / and clarify the mental voids of certain / learned anthropoids. / In evening dress of faultless trim / nine chimpanzees surrounded him, / discussing in an undertone / exhibit three, now being shown.’ PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12666). REPRODUCED: [John] David Roberts, Fantasy for Flute (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942

Fantasy for Flute – ‘Huxley, wrestling with an Ape’ – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Fantasy for Flute (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942), 1942. Pencil, squared, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Fantasy for Flute – ‘Huxley, wrestling with an Ape’, 1942. ‘[S]ometimes, in the evening gloom / outside the Senior Common Room, / you’d see him pull up short, and stare / and prod the disembodied air / with furtive strokes, as if before / his vision pranced a dinosaur / advancing with ungainly hops / or lumbering triceratops / or maybe the contorted shape / of Huxley, wrestling with an Ape / in mortal combat, to contrive / which was the fittest to survive! / Flute stood there trembling, visage blenched / before those adversaries clenched / while Dons with supercilious frowns / passed by, and muttered in their gowns / “Tho’ none his learning could impute, / he wanders sometimes, old Max Flute … ”’ Pen and ink, 23.5 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). REPRODUCED: [John] David Roberts, Fantasy for Flute (Oxford: Vincent Printing Works, 1942)

Farewell, 1943–4. Pencil and watercolour, 52.5 x 34. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. Sailor’s Farewell 1943–4

Farm, The, see Country Scene, 1922

Farm Workers, see French Peasants, c.1928

Farmyard with Geese and Goats (a study for Milking Goats?), c.1948. Pencil. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper (1977)

Father, The, c.1969? Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 31. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

(recto) Father Time – study, c.1957. Pencil, 13 x 4.5. Design for the cover of Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work
(verso) Woman’s Head – fragment of life drawing, c.1957. Pencil, 6.7 x 15.3
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Feeding the Goats, see Goats, The, c.1966

Feeding the Goats – study, c.1966. Pencil and watercolour, 17.5 x 14.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Feeding Gulls – study, 1929. Sanguine chalk and charcoal, 21.0 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12696). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Feeding Gulls, 1929. Pencil and wash, 43 x 35. ‘This was inspired by Regent’s Park’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Hon. Arnold Palmer > Contemporary Art Society (1941) > Harrogate Art Gallery (now Mercer Art Gallery) (1948). EXHIBITION HISTORY: St George’s Gallery 1930, Arthur Tooth & Sons 1930, National Gallery 1940, Leeds 1941, Hull 1945, Arts Council 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 71

Feeding Gulls by the Lake – study for Feeding the Seagulls, 1973–4. Drawing, 21.5 x 16. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Feeding the Pigeons – study, c.1938. Pencil, squared, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Feeding the Pigeons - study (aka Feeding Birds and Pigeons), c.1938. Pencil, squared 27.3 x 20.2. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£3,200) > ? > Sotheby’s 21 May 1986 (estimate £3,000–£3,500; unsold) > Sotheby’s 1 Mar. 1989 (£2,800) > Albemarle Gallery > ? > Piccadilly Gallery > Christie’s 14 Mar. 2002 (£4,935)> Barclays Art Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (as Feeding Birds, 15 gns, thought to be a study for the oil painting Pigeons in the same exhibition), Worthing 1972, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Artmonsky Arts 2001. Cf. Feeding Gulls 1929

Feeding the Seagulls, 1973–4 (signed and dated ‘73’). Pencil, watercolour and gouache (squared), 17.5 x 14.9. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > Dr and Mrs Clein > Christie’s South Kensington 15 July 2015 (£22,500)

Feeding the Seagulls (aka The Seagulls), 1973–4 (signed and dated ‘74’). Oil on canvas, 77 x 66. PROVENANCE: Reading Museum and Art Gallery (bought by Reading Borough Council 1986, with the assistance of the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund and the Reading Foundation for Art). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1974, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 118

‘Feeds Round!’ Stable-time in the Wagon-lines, France – study, see Wagon Lines, The, 1922

‘Feeds Round!’ Stable-time in the Wagon-lines, France, 1922. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61. In a letter to Ernest Blaikley, Keeper of Art, at the Imperial War Museum, on 18 August 1924, WR wrote, ‘I think in a letter to Mr Muirhead Bone I gave the title of my picture as Stable-time at the Wagon Lines, but I think I will make a little addition to this and have it, “Feeds round! Stable time at the Wagon Lines, France.” Feeds Round! is the order given by the Sergeant Major for the men to cease grooming. The nose-bags are then brought and placed just behind each horse where the men wait in readiness for the final order, “Feed!”’ (IWM, 277/6). PROVENANCE: Sir Muirhead Bone presented to Contemporary Art Society to Imperial War Museum (4218) 1924. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Arts Council 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Edinburgh 1974, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 35

(verso) Feet, Study of
(recto) Crabs, c.1958 (also dated c.1960 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Drawing, 12 x 17.5
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(verso) Female nude
(recto) Spring Flowers, c.1967? Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 23.8.
PROVENANCE: Roberts Simms > Denys Wilcox Fine Art > Howard Goodall (Nov. 2002) > Pat Goodall > private collection

Femme Tragique, La (aka Portrait of Sarah, the Artist’s Wife), c.1925. Oil on canvas, 76 x 51. The picture borrows from Titian’s Man with a Glove in the Louvre. PROVENANCE: Hugh Blaker > ? > Sotheby's 9 Nov. 1988 (as Portrait of Sarah, the Artist's Wife; estimate £7,000–£10,000; unsold) > Gillian Jason Gallery > private collection > Phillips 21 Nov. 2000 (estimate £25,000–£30,000; unsold) > Bonhams 26 June 2007 (£27,600) > Old Parsonage Hotel, Oxford. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1928, Manchester 1929, Brighton 1929. The 2000 Phillips sale catalogue mentioned a Leicester Galleries label on the back of the picture and speculated that this might refer to the exhibition which we list as Leicester Galleries (1) 1948; however, this picture does not appear in the catalogue of that exhibition. REPRODUCED: Sir Joseph Duveen, Thirty Years of British Art (London, 1930), p. 150

Ferry, The – study (aka Ferry Crossing and Old Marston Ferry), 1944 (also dated 1940) (signed and inscribed ‘Ferry Crossing’). Pencil and watercolour, 16.5 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12632, as Ferry Crossing). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985 (as Old Marston Ferry)

Ferry, The (aka The Ferry at Marston near Oxford), 1944. Oil on canvas, 52.5 x 42.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by A. E. Hendrickson > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£1,300) > M. Parr Gallery > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 47

Ferry at Marston near Oxford, The, see Ferry, The, 1944

(recto) Fifth Vortex Pamphlet, Design for, 1958. Ink, 17.8 x 13.3. ‘Newspaper readers, including William Roberts, look at their newspapers in astonishment’ – Gillian Jason Gallery 1990. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 5)
(verso) Nude (fragment)
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12653). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Tate Britain 2012

Fight on the Beach, see Combat – study, 1966

Figure with Cat, 1925–6. Pencil, 16 x 11.5. Sketch for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 39 (part))

Figure with Colours, 1970s. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Figure Composition, 1913. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Alpine Club Gallery 1914 (£50; ‘follows Mr. Lewis … but in departing from the simplicity of colour of that artist, has confused his design until it becomes illegible’ – The Athenæum, 10 Jan. 1914)

Figure Composition, suggest 1916–17 (also dated 1914). Pencil, 22.9 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > ? > Court Gallery (2013)

Figure Composition I and II, c.1917 (signed). Pencil, 17.8 x 24.1 and 24.1 x 19.0. Figures from these (separate) drawings seem to have been incorporated into La Plage c.1917, though these studies may not necessarily have been made with that final composition in mind. There seems to be no reason to associate them with Two-step c.1915, as was once suggested. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery (each as ‘Possibly a study for “Twostep”’) > private collection, UK

Figure Reading, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Sketch for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 39 (part))

(verso) Figure Studies, Two – a man with an umbrella and a female figure with a cat
(recto) Love Song in a Bar (inscribed ‘A Song of Love’), 1922. Black chalk, squared, 25 x 19. REPRODUCED: Whitworth Art Gallery website
PROVENANCE: Leon Underwood gift to Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (1924). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Figure Studies for Composition (aka Vorticist Composition, dated c.1914, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, and Figure Composition), c.1916–17. Pencil on paper, 12 x 17. PROVENANCE: Private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1996 (as Untitled c.1914), Artmonsky Arts 2001, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 9

Figures Crawling over a Body, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Study for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 12 (part))

(recto) Figures Dressing and Stretching, c.1923. Black and red chalk, 15 x 11.5
(verso) Two Figures at a Table, c.1923. Black chalk, 16.8 x 12.8
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Figures in the Park, c.1924. Oil on canvas, 75 x 50. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 18 Apr. 1969

Figures in the Shop, see Brass Balls, 1922

Filling in Shell Holes, see In the Village of Fampoux, spring 1917

First German Gas Attack at Ypres, The – study, 1918. Red chalk, brushed with water to create pink wash and graphite with grey and brown wash on pink wove paper, squared, 42.9 x 52.0. Inscribed ‘Roberts, 18’ and ‘Second Battle of Ypres / Germans use Gas / Canadian Artillery within 200 yds of Enemy / Turcos, Zouaves, Canadians retreating in Gas / fumes through line of Guns’. PROVENANCE: Rudolph Stulik > Browse & Darby > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£450) > William Darby > private collection (‘D.C’) > Christie’s 11 Nov. 1988 (£12,100) > National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Hayward Gallery 1974, Ottawa 2005

First German Gas Attack at Ypres – study, 1918 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 42 x 45. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 16 Dec. 1964 > Richard Morphet. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974

First German Gas Attack at Ypres, The, 1918 (commissioned by the Canadian War Records Office – finished Nov. 1918). Oil on canvas, 304.8 x 365.8. ‘“The Germans attacked with gas in the afternoon of April 22nd, 1915, and the first to feel the effects of the poisonous fumes were the French soldiers on the Canadians’ left. The French troops, largely made up of Turcos and Zouaves, surged wildly back over the canal and through the village of Vlammertinghe just at dark. The Canadian reserve battalions (of the 1st Brigade) were amazed at the anguished faces of many of the French soldiers, twisted and distorted by pain, who were gasping for breath and vainly trying to gain relief by vomiting.” – Canada in Flanders, Vol. I. The French infantry, Zoauves and Turcos, thrown into disorder by the German gas attack, are seen retreating wildly past the guns of a Canadian Field Battery, while Canadian gunners endeavour to stay the advance of the German infantry, who are within 200 yards of the Canadian Batteries’ – Royal Academy (1) 1919 catalogue. PROVENANCE (see here): National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (transferred from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921) > Canadian War Museum, Ottawa (on permanent loan from 2005). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1919 (‘There is … safety in predicting that, apart from any artistic importance it may possess, [future generations of Canadians] will not learn very much of “The First German Gas Attack at Ypres” from Mr. W. Roberts’s picture’– The Times, 4 Jan. 1919; ‘The convulsive movements and grimaces of the terror-stricken, choking and vomiting Turcos and Zouaves … certainly border on the grotesque, but surely the fine flowing rhythm of the design and the dazzling splendour of the colour pattern justify the accentuation of the horror of the scene by means of gesture. This gas attack was one of the ghastliest incidents of the war, and its pictorial interpretation is intended to strike horror. But Mr. Roberts has introduced abstract qualities of design which bring an otherwise impossible subjec within the range of art’ – The Observer, 12 Jan. 1919; ‘Mr. Roberts has preserved the dramatic power which characterised some of his youthful drawings. Here … is great concentration on design … violent, audaciously contorted movement with a complement of violent colour being the key-note … If one is not carried away by the vitality of this performance, there is still an element of incompleteness to be found in it. Certain passages which are properly appreciated only at close range, and which are lost at the distance necessary to take in the whole, suggest that the artist was working in too small a studio, or for some reason was unable to obtain a complete grasp of his large canvas’ – Burlington Magazine, Feb. 1919, p. 80), New York 1941, Tate Gallery 1965, National Gallery of Canada 2000. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 43

Fisher Boys, see Tiddler Fishing, 1972

Fisherman. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fisherman and Boat, date uncertain. Pencil, 6.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Fisherman with Fish, 1950s (or later?). Pencil, 12.5 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Fisherman)?

Fisherman on Towpath, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Tow-path’. Pencil, 14 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fishermen, The, c.1961. Drawing/watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1962

Fishermen, 1968. Watercolour, 45.7 x 34.3. PROVENANCE: Sir Frederick Gibberd > Harlow Council Collection (now the Gibberd Gallery) (1984)

Fishing, c.1944. (It is possible that this is Boys Fishing dated as c.1955, though the date for this work is not confirmed.) Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945. Cf. Boys Fishing c.1955, The Catch c.1947, Tiddler Fishing 1972 and Tiddlers 1973

Fishing, see Tiddlers – study, 1973

Fishing Contest, The, see Canal, The, 1964–5

Fishing (Three Youths), date uncertain. Pencil, 4.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fishing Umbrella, date uncertain. Red chalk, 12.5 x 8.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fixing the Creeper, 1976. Oil on canvas, 61 x 46. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977

Flamenco (aka The Guitarist and Sarah with a Guitar), 1960. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1960, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964

Flashing Sword, 1925–6. Ink, 28.4 x 19.7. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘I thought of the meaning of Feisal’s name (the sword flashing downward in the stroke) … ‘ (ch. 19). PROVENANCE: Houghton Library, Harvard University. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, National Portrait Gallery 1988, Imperial War Museum 2005. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 6

Flower Arrangement, The (aka Reading the Newspaper), 1944. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18 x 12. PROVENANCE: Luke Gertler. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003 (where dated 1943). REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 18

Flower Arrangement, The, 1944. Pencil and watercolour on paper, 53 x 35. ‘William Roberts’ picture is all clarity and legibility. It could be said to be presenting classicism’s insistence on delineation and proportion. The figures are shown to be tidy variations on basic geometrical forms, and they are composed to fit neatly into the rectangular shape of the whole as well as into the pattern of other forms they meet within it. The whole thing is verticals, horizontals and diagonals; the visual traffic flows smoothly. The miracle is that the result is so friendly and intimate. Of course we respond gladly to order as long as it does not turn into authoritarian orders, and there is satisfaction as well as visual strength in a clear structure, but Roberts makes it surprisingly easy for us to identify with his domestic pair, even with their typical roles. In part this comes from the comfortable proportions as well as the ordinary faces he gives to his figures, in part from the gentle hues of his watercolours’ – Norbert Lynton in the catalogue for Manchester 1985, p. 10. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£480) > J. R. Capstick-Dale > James Kirkman 1976 > Arts Council Collection (Kitaj purchase, 1976). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Hayward Gallery 1976, Manchester 1985, Arts Council (2) 1987, Newcastle 2004, Geffrye Museum 2007 Rotterdam 2011, Lincoln 2016. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 75

Flower Seller, see Gypsy Flower Seller, The, 1943–4

Flower Sellers, The, c.1941. Oil on canvas, 29.5 x 39.5. PROVENANCE: WR > Tom Alexander. In 1957 Tom Alexander, living on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, wrote to WR, as he had written to other artists, including Moore, Hepworth, Sutherland, Piper, Pasmore, Hitchens and Lowry, saying he had £40 to spend and asking if he could possibly buy a representative work for that amount. Roberts sent studies of four paintings so that Alexander could choose the oil of one of them. The other three studies were Donald Wolfit as King Lear at the ‘Old Bedford’ 1949, a study for The Ferry 1944, and The Ballet c.1932. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Edinburgh 2010

Flower Stall – study for The Flower Sellers, c.1941. Pencil and watercolour, 13.3 x 18.1. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Flowerwomen, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Flower Women on Doorstep’. Pencil, 10 x 8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Flying Dutchman, The – study, c.1915. Pencil, pen and ink, inscribed, 21 x 16. When this was exhibited at the Hamet Gallery and the Parkin Gallery (see below), the catalogues described it as ‘Design for: The Flying Dutchman’, though the context in which the design might have been used is not known and the description may simply have been referring to the drawing being a study for an unrealised project. PROVENANCE: Christie’s South Kensington 3 Mar. 1986 (estimate £600–£800) > ? > Christie’s South Kensington 25 Sept. 1986 > ? > South Kensington Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£1,763) > ? > Sotheby’s 19 May 2004 (£1,800) > ? > Christie’s South Kensington 22 Mar. 2012 (estimate £3,000–£5,000; unsold) > Lawrences Auctioneers, Crewkerne, 23 Oct. 2020 (£3,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976

Folk Dance – study, 1936. Watercolour, 21.5 x 32. PROVENANCE: British Council (purchased 1942, when it was dated 1938). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, British Council (1) 1947, British Council 1951, British Council 1981, British Council 1990, British Council 1997, Newcastle 2004, Whitechapel Gallery 2009. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 71

Folk Dance, 1936. Oil on canvas, 86 x 127. ‘[E]xhibited at the London Group in 1938 under a title given by someone else, “The Lambeth Walk”. However, it does not represent the Lambeth Walk, or, for that matter, any folk dance in particular’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 1986 > Sotheby’s 22 June 1994 > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1938, London Group 1938 (‘the first record in art of a phenomenon in the modern ballroom: the change from the face-to-face shuffle into more open, even individual, steps which point to the return of the square dance’ – The Bystander, 30 Nov. 1938), Bradford 1939 (£100), Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: The Bystander, 30 Nov. 1938

(recto) Football (study for Goal, c.1968), c.1968. Drawing, 53 x 15.7
(verso) Torso
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Footballer, Details of, with notes, c.1968. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11.3 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Foresters, The, see Tree Felling, c.1969

Fortune Telling, see Palm Foretells, The – study, 1937

Fountain, The (aka The Drinking Fountain), 1967. Pencil and watercolour, 18.7 x 16.2. PROVENANCE: Private collection, UK (from Maclean Gallery 1980) > Bonhams 14 June 2017 (£32,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976. Maclean Gallery 1980

Fountain, The (aka The Drinking Fountain), 1967. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. ‘The fountain is in Regent’s Park, quite close to the artist’s home’ – Cayzer, William Roberts. PROVENANCE: Private collection, London > Christie’s South Kensington 23 Mar. 2017 (£137,000) > Richard Green. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

4.5 Howitzer Gunner R.F.A. 1916–1918: Memories of the War to End War 1914–1918 by William Roberts – cover artwork, 1974. Ink, 21 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(recto) Four Fables – study for a poem, 1942 (cf. other Four Fables 1942 works). Pencil, 17 x 12
(verso) Demolition Squad – study, 1941. Pencil, 17 x 12
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Four Fables – study for the title-page illustration (nude woman embraced by two men) in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Pencil and stump, 12.5 x13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Four Fables (nude woman embraced by two men), c.1942. Pen and ink. REPRODUCED: Title page for [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942)

Four Fables – Dr Phantasmus – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Black chalk, 15.6 x 12.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Four Fables – Dr Phantasmus – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Pencil, squared, 15.5 x 12.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Fables – Dr Phantasmus, c.1942. Drawing. REPRODUCED: [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942)

Four Fables – The Hermit – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Pencil, 17.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Fables – The Hermit – study, c.1942. Pencil, 17.2 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12668)

Four Fables – The Hermit (a boat with two rowers, a steersman, two guitarists and two men lounging), c.1942. Drawing. REPRODUCED: John Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942)

Four Fables – Legend – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942) (a man with a javelin pointing it at a half-naked woman), c.1942. Pencil, squared, 14 x 11. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Fables – Legend (a man with a javelin pointing it at a half-naked woman), c.1942. REPRODUCED: [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942)

(recto) Four Fables – Moment in a Restaurant – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Black chalk, 17.7 x 12.5. This study lacks the violinist shown in other versions/
(verso) Four Men Gesticulating, c.1942. Red chalk, 17.5 x 12.8. Inscribed in pencil ‘When I write “Discerning Amateur etc.” you buy.’
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(recto) Four Fables – Moment in a Restaurant – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Black chalk, 18.3 x 13.5
(verso) Fragment of a female nude life study, c.1942. Black chalk
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Fables – Moment in a Restaurant – study, c.1942. Pencil, squared, 19.8 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Fables – Moment in a Restaurant (a violinist, two women waiting on a mixed group which includes a ‘primitive’ man with his hand on one woman’s knee), c.1942. Pencil, 17 x 12. REPRODUCED: John Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942)

(verso) Four Men Gesticulating, c.1942. Red chalk, 17.5 x 12.8. Inscribed in pencil ‘When I write “Discerning Amateur etc.” you buy.’
(recto) Four Fables – Moment in a Restaurant – study for an illustration in [John] David Roberts, Four Fables (Oxford: Joseph Vincent, 1942), c.1942. Black chalk, 17.7 x 12.5. This study lacks the violinist shown in other versions/
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Four Men Hanging a Large Picture, c.1930. Pencil on grey paper, 22 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Fred, 1920–23. Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 51. Frederick Knewstub (1909–2001) was a nephew of John Knewstub of the Chenil Galleries, where in 1923 Roberts had his first one-man show. Fred and his sister Katie (also painted by Roberts – as Kit 1923) lived with John Knewstub and his wife, Helen, after their mother (née Florence Nelson Fulcher) died in 1915, their father, Frederick Oliver Knewstub, having died the previous year. Fred was a ship’s photographer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and spent almost all the rest of his life in Wimbledon. PROVENANCE: Christie’s Feb. 1956 > J. Holmstrom > Holloway’s, Banbury, 10 Dec. 2013 (£6,200) > private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

(recto) French Peasants (aka Workmen and Farm Workers) – a study for Labourers, c.1928. Pencil and watercolour, 19.3 x 11.4
(verso) Man Digging, c.1928. Pencil, 8.5 x 4.5
PROVENANCE: Bonhams Chelsea 4 July 1996 (estimate £1,200–£1,800) > Bonhams 28 Nov. 1996 (as Workmen, estimate £700–£900) > Julian Lax > private collection (as Farm Workers, Feb. 1999). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1928, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

French Peasants, see Skittle Alley, c.1927

French Sailors, see French Sailors on the Deck of a Ship, c.1926?

French Sailors on the Deck of a Ship (aka French Sailors), c.1926? (dating from the 1920s: ‘Roberts rejects the sharp forms of his early style in favour of a more rounded classicism’ – John David Roberts, Cambridge 1985). Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 30. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (as French Sailors, in lot 138 with Street Acrobats 1923 and Family and Dog c.1926; £18) > Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Frolicking, 1978–9. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979

Fruit, see Native Women Sorting Fruit, c.1953

Fruit Picking, see Blackberry Picking, c.1944

Gathering Fruit (?), date uncertain Watercolour over pencil, 45.7 x 29.4. PROVENANCE: Sold 1984 (£500)

Garden of Eden, The (aka Adam and Eve) – two studies on a single sheet, c.1926. Black chalk 18.0 x 27.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Albemarle Gallery 1989

(recto) Garden of Eden, The (aka Adam and Eve) – study, c.1926 (signed and dated 1923 in ballpoint – the use of ballpoint suggests the dating was done much later, perhaps the work of John David Roberts for the 1985 Cambridge exhibition. Stylistically the Tate date of 1926 seems more likely). Charcoal and pencil, squared, 10.2 x 12.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012
(verso) Garden of Eden, The (aka Adam and Eve) – study
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12662)

Garden of Eden, The (aka Adam and Eve), c.1926. Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 50.8 (‘rejected from the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, in 1929, on the grounds that American taste was not yet ready for such pictures, and was also taken out of a provincial exhibition in England by the mayor, newspaper articles and interviews resulting’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue). PROVENANCE: Mrs Isobel Powys Marks (1965) > Christie’s 7 June 2002 (£33,460) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (2) 1927, Leicester Galleries (2) 1927, Southport 1928, London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (45 gns; ‘touching in its observation of fallen humanity. The disapproving deer is a comment of genius’ – The Times, 18 June 1929), Hamburg 1932 (as Der Garten Eden), Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004 (where dated 1923), Hastings 2016, Newcastle 2018, Sheffield 2018, Cookham 2019, Bedford 2022. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 80

Gas Alert, 1919 (signed, dated and inscribed). Pencil and watercolour, 21.0 x 14.6. PROVENANCE: WR > Caroline Neill (née Debenham) > Lord Neill of Bladen (F. P. Neill) (2010) > ? (by descent, 2016) > Duke’s, Dorchester, 10 Apr. 2014 (£27,808)> ? > Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, 4 Dec. 2018 (estimate £20,000–£30,000; unsold) > Christie’s 26 June–14 July 2020 (online sale; £18,750)

Gas Attack at Ypres – study, 1918. Pencil, pen, ink, red chalk and coloured wash, squared, 43 x 34. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 9 Mar. 1921. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Gas Chamber, The, 1918 (signed and inscribed ‘Aug. 1918 The Gas Chamber’). Ink, pencil and watercolour, 31.8 x 50.8. ‘By way of a change we did gas-mask drill. Wearing our gas-masks, we had to pass through a narrow covered trench or dug-out blanketed at both ends and filled with poison gas. These practice sessions helped to pass the time’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Commissioned for the Ministry of Information > Imperial War Museum (1166). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Washington, DC, 1919, Tate Gallery 1956, Tate Gallery 1965, Nottingham 1972, Edinburgh 1974. REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth

Gate, The (aka Cows and Gate) – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 20 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Gate, The (aka Cows and Gate), 1975. Watercolour, 48 x 35. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Gateway to the Western Isles – study, 1946–7. Pencil, squared 13.5 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Gateway to the Western Isles, 1946–7. Pen, ink and watercolour. This is one of a series of four drawings inspired by a visit that William and Sarah Roberts made to the Outer Hebrides. The trip was likely to have been planned with Sarah’s friend Victoria Kingsley, a collector of international folk music, who had become interested in Hebridean songs and spent some time on Barra learning Gaelic. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > ? > unknown saleroom 1989 (£5,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns). Cf. Crossing the Minch, Evening in Oban and Graveyard at Barra

Gathering Apples, see Orchard, The, 1936

German Attacks in France (aka Great German Activity), 1915. Pen and ink, 8.6 x 10. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976

German Dug-out, c.1918. Pencil and watercolour, 34 x 25. PROVENANCE: Private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

German Prisoner, The – study, c.1930. Pencil, 14 x 10, squared. PROVENANCE: Tate archive, William Roberts box 3

German Prisoner, The– study, c.1930. Black chalk, 19.6 x 12.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

German Prisoner, The (aka Prisoner of War?), c.1930 – frontispiece to James Hanley’s The German Prisoner, published privately in May 1930. Ink drawing. PROVENANCE: Probably the picture from the collection of Wyndham T. Vint exhibited as Prisoner of War as follows. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937

German Prisoners (aka Prisoners), c.1916. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 35 x 24.5. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.73-1964)

Germans in Constantinople, 1916 (signed, dated and inscribed ‘Germans in Constantinople’). Pencil and wash, 50 x 34. PROVENANCE: Art dealer > Wakefield City Art Gallery (July 1938). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1956, Tate Gallery 1965

Germans are Trying To Make Themselves at Home in Constantinople, The, c.1916? Pencil, 22 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1973

Gift, The, 1943–4? (cyclist gives rabbit to a woman with a child). Pencil and watercolour squared, 55 x 33. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 19 May 1982 > private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Girl in Mauve Hat (aka Sarah and The Violet Hat), 1923 (also dated as 1925, but a painting was exhibited under this name in 1923). Oil on canvas, 61 x 51. ‘William P. Roberts in The Violet Hat, shown at Wembley in 1924, and in other paintings has developed a powerful style in which a sense of weight and volume derived from Cubism is combined with a simplicity and directness of utterance which may be regarded as the legacy of Fauvisme’ – Rutter, Evolution in Modern Art, p. 129. PROVENANCE: Oliver Brown > Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (purchased 1976). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (£50), Wembley 1924 (as The Violet Hat, £80). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 72

(recto) Girls with Plaits, date uncertain. Red chalk, 8.5 x 4.5
(verso) Woman with Crossed Arms and a Baby, date uncertain. Red chalk, 7.5 x 4.8
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Girl with Plaits, Portrait of a, see Deirdre, c.1931

Girl Playing a Guitar, c.1931. Drawing/watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (5 gns), R. E. A. Wilson’s Gallery 1933 (‘“A Girl Playing a Guitar,” by Mr. William Roberts, [is among] … other excellent drawings’ – The Times, 1 July 1933). Cf. Girl Playing Guitar (aka Sarah with Guitar) c.1943 and Girl Playing Guitar c.1943, which have both been dated to c.1931, although their style seems later.

Girl Playing Guitar, c.1937. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (8 gns)

Girl Playing Guitar (aka Sarah with Guitar) – study, c.1943. (When auctioned in 2007 this was dated to 1931, but the style seems more consistent with works from the early 1940s – cf. The Guitarist (John) 1943.) Watercolour and pencil, squared, 18.4 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Piccadilly Gallery > Edgar Astaire > Bloomsbury Auctions 3 May 2007 (£3,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester (date unknown)

Girl Playing Guitar (aka Girl with Guitar), c.1943. (In the Artmonsky Arts 2001 catalogue this was dated to c.1931, and there and when auctioned in 2002 it was identified with a picture exhibited at the London Artists’ Association in 1931 – cf. Girl Playing a Guitar c.1931 – but the style seems more consistent with works from the early 1940s and it looks like a companion piece for The Guitarist (John), which is dated to 1943.) Watercolour and pencil, 54 x 36.8. PROVENANCE: WR > Eleanor de Zoysa > Kumari Jayawardena > Christie’s 7 June 2001 (£5,288) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2002 (£6,214). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Colombo 1947, Artmonsky Arts 2001. REPRODUCED: Artmonsky Arts 2001 catalogue, front cover

Girl with Guitar, see Girl Playing Guitar, c.1943

Girl with a Red Nose, 1909. Red chalk on paper, 30.5 x 22.9. Inscribed ‘The Girl with the Red nose’. The model was the artist’s sister, Mary (b. 1892). PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Arts Council Collection (1956). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1929, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004, Newcastle 2010. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 17

Girl Standing with Arms Folded, see Sarah, 1922 (watercolour)

Girl’s Head, A, c.1923. Drawing. (Is this Girl with a Red Nose 1909?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Girls, Fishermen and Swans, c.1940. Pencil, squared, 13.5 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Gitana, La (aka Sarah with Her Hair in Ribbons – Reading 1983 – and Sarah in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964), 1948–9. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964

Gladiators, The, see Death of Odysseus, The, 1979

Goal, c.1968? (dated 1955–60 Hamet Gallery 1971). Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 37.5. PROVENANCE: James Huntington-Whitely > private Collection, UK > Portland Gallery > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Manchester 1971, Gallery 27 1998

Goal, c.1968. Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4. PROVENANCE: George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood > ? (by descent) > Christie’s 17 June 2019 (estimate £300,000–£500,000; unsold) > Richard Green. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 112

Goal, The – study, 1925–6. Red chalk, charcoal, and pencil, 28 x 21.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 45)

Goal, The, 1925–6 (three figures on horseback with a city (Damascus) in the background). Pen and ink. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 639

Goats, see Milking Goats, 1948–53

Goats, The – study, 1952. Inscribed ‘Canvas 4 ft x 3 ft Scale of drawing 3 ins to 1 ft.’ Pencil, squared, 18.5. x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Goats, The – study, 1952. Pencil and watercolour, 46.3 x 34.9. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£4,140) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2002 (£6,573). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1953, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Goats, The, 1952. Oil on canvas, 140 x 117.5. ‘An imaginative composition, not done with any particular place in mind. It was painted for the Contemporary Art Society at the suggestion of Wilfrid Evill, who was one of the buyers for the year: Mr Evill told Roberts that, if he painted a picture specially for the CAS, he would buy it from him’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society (1952) > Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1956). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 95

Goats, The (aka Feeding the Goats), c.1966. Oil on canvas, 76.8 x 61. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > ? (1973) > ?’s grandchild > Christie’s 12 Dec. 2008 (estimate £25,000–£35,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Gods, The, see At the Hippodrome, 1920

Going to Swim – study – and Man with Tray on Shoulder, 1930. Brown chalk and black chalk, two drawings on one sheet of paper, 25 x 16.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Going to Swim – study – and Boy on a Bicycle (aka Errand Boy), 1930. Two drawings on one sheet of paper (24.7 x 17.2): black chalk 8 x 7 and brown chalk 16 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014) (1985). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985. Cf. The Errand Boys 1939

Going to Swim – study, 1930 (also dated 1933) and Hands – study for Dressmakers c.1931. Pencil, 26 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12678). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Going to Swim – study, 1930. Black chalk, 24 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Going to Swim – study, 1930. Pencil, squared, 22.9 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 21 Oct. 2021 (£15,000)

Going to Swim – study (aka Boys Going for a Swim), 1930 (also dated 1933). Pencil and gouache, 23.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > Spink & Son, London > ? > Christie’s 23 June 1994 (£4,370). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Tate Gallery 1965 (ex-catalogue), Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1983, Spink & Son 1993

Going to Swim (aka Men Bathing), 1930 (also dated 1933). Oil on canvas, 50 x 39.5. PROVENANCE: Montague Shearman > Redfern Gallery > Edward Le Bas (1965) > ? > Richard Burrows. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (30 gns; ‘A detail that struck a feminine observer – this artist sees the immense decorative possibilities of the knitted pull-over’ – The Graphic, 7 Nov. 1931, probably thinking of this work), Redfern Gallery (1) 1940, Arts Council 1951, Bradford 1954, Royal Academy Diploma Gallery 1963, Tate Gallery 1965, Nottingham 2006, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 40

Golden Age, The, c.1934. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Wakefield 1936 (12 gns), Hull 1936 (12 gns), Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns)

Goldfish Bowl, The – study (aka Cat and Goldfish), 1968 (signed). Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Phillips 21 Nov. 2000 (£1,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Goldfish Bowl, The, 1968. Pen and ink, 22.5 x 16.5. Cover design for Anthony d’Offay 1969 exhibition ‘William Roberts R.A. Drawings and Watercolours, 1915–1968’ – printed on orange card, edition of 250 copies. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 7 June 1978 (as ‘William Roberts 1915–1968, a design’; unsold) > Sotheby’s 31 Jan. 1979 > ? > Bonhams 20 Nov. 2007 (£2,160) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Woking 2011

Good Food for Growing Children – study, c.1948. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 11.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Good Food for Growing Children, c.1948 – a cover design for a publication of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, using the drawing Mother and Children Picnicking. Other LHC cover designs by Roberts were Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health (c.1953), Salads for All Seasons (c.1953), A Simple Guide to Heathy Food (c.1953) and Towards Better Health (c.1953). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. The Kitchen – study (aka Some Recipes), 1942–5

Good Life Line, A. c.1937. Drawing. Probably a study for The Palm Foretells 1937. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns)

Good Old Days, The – study for The Tea Room, 1937–8. Pencil, 27.9 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > ? > Jonathan Clark Fine Art. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942?, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 (where dated c.1936), Manchester 1971, Reading 1983

Good Old Days, The – study for The Tea Room, 1937–8 (dated as c.1936 Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). Pencil and watercolour, 27.7 x 25.4. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1982. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–58, p. 44

Gossips – study, 1968. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?

Gossips (aka Street Gossips, Street Gossips on the Front Steps and Landladies), 1968. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 61.0. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 19 May 1982 (£1,500) > ? > Christie’s 12 Nov. 1982 (£15,00) > ? > Christie’s 21 Nov. 1995 (£11,500) > ? > Christie’s 22 Jan. 2020 (£60,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969 (as Landladies), Parkin Gallery 1976 (as Landladies). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 19 (as Street Gossips)

Grand Chantrey Stakes, The – study (aka Munnings – The Will), 1949 (also dated 1957, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992). Pencil, squared, 12.6 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Grand Chantrey Stakes, The, 1949. Pencil and watercolour, 26 x 35.5. Under the will of the English sculptor Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey (1781–1841), in 1875 the Royal Academy received the then huge sum of £105,000 to be invested by five trustees, with the income each year being given to the RA to purchase ‘works of Fine Art of the highest merit executed within the shores of Great Britain’, with the idea of building up a national collection of British art. After the Tate Gallery was opened, in 1897, all the works purchased were housed there. There was soon criticism of the standard and representativeness of the works bought, and the Tate began a long campaign for at first some and then a greater say in the selection process. Roberts’s picture, showing the president of the RA Sir Alfred Munnings – a celebrated painter of horses – riding away with the Chantrey will, seems to have arisen from the Tate’s seeking greater control. As Roberts put it in a letter in the 13 Dec. 1957 Times Literary Supplement (as paraphrased in his Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism, 1958), ‘By 1949 the Tate and the Academy were in open conflict over the Chantrey Fund. In an article From the Tate Cellars to the Academy Walls in the Daily Telegraph of 7th January, 1949 under the signature Peterborough Sir John complains that the “Tate share in Chantrey decisions is largely illusory” … Again in the Daily Telegraph on 20th January, 1949 in his article “Why the Tate does not show the Chantrey pictures” Sir John complains that the Director and Trustees of Tate “Are able to exercise no effective control over the Chantrey Fund”. Then on the 27th January, 1949, in the Daily Telegraph the R.A.’s open up their batteries with an article by the President Sir Alfred Munnings “Chantrey Pictures, Academy reply to a challenge” in it he writes “The exhibition of the Chantrey pictures at the Academy is the result of a challenge thrown down by the Tate Board and accepted by the Academy Council’; he further states that “In 1947 there was deadlock at the Tate, Chairman and his Board on one side of the table, myself and Academy Council on the other.” Eventually from this struggle around the conference table the Tate secure equal representation with the Academy on both committees of the Chantrey Fund [later in 1949], thereby obtaining power in addition to responsibility.’ PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Sept. 1949, £15) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > private collection, London (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1952, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 115

Grandchild, The – study (aka Family Group), 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18.5 x 15. PROVENANCE: New Grafton Gallery > James Birch > ? > Dreweatts, 19 Oct. 2022 (as Family Group, estimate £6,000–£8,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1976

Grandchild, The, 1973. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 35

Grandmother, The – study, 1977 (dated). Pencil, squared, 20.3 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (1) 1986

Grandmother, The, 1977. Watercolour, 41 x 25. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1992 (unsold?). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Grape Pickers – study, 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 18 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Grape Pickers, 1974. Watercolour, 35 x 27.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Graveyard at Barra – study (aka Barra Graveyard, Shetlands (sic)), 1946–7. Pencil, 12.7 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12729). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (where dated c.1953)

Graveyard at Barra (aka Barra Memory), 1946–7. Pen, ink and watercolour, 26 x 35.5. This is one of a series of four drawings inspired by a visit that William and Sarah Roberts made to the Outer Hebrides. The trip was likely to have been planned with Sarah’s friend Victoria Kingsley, a collector of international folk music, who had become interested in Hebridean songs and spent some time on Barra learning Gaelic. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£3,450). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester (3) 1949 (where titled Barra Memory), Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972. Cf. Crossing the Minch, Evening in Oban and Gateway to the Western Isles

Great German Activity, see German Attacks in France, 1915

Greek Meeting, The, see Speakers’ Corner, 1979

Grooming Horses, suggest 1916 (also dated c.1917 –18). Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 25. PROVENANCE: Mayor Gallery (Dec. 1971) > Government Art Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking (2) 2014

Group Drinking at a Bar, see Boozers, c.1925

Group of Generals, A, c.1918. Inscribed ‘General Staff’. Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 30. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1172). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Nottingham 1972

Group of People in a Punt, see Punting on the Cherwell – study, 1939

Group of People Sitting on a Bench, see Park Bench, The, 1933

Guarding the Masterpiece, 1964. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7.
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12699). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Guarding the Masterpiece, 1964 (inscribed ‘Abstract 1960’). Pencil and watercolour, 47 x 35. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > A. E. Hendrickson > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£550). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1964, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue

Guarding the Masterpiece – study, 1978. Watercolour, 13.3 x 17.8. ‘An earlier form of this theme shows two dogs and two warders, all very much on the alert, guarding an abstract painting. The present form shows one dozing warder and one bored dog, and the painting has become a piece of sculpture’ – Albemarle Gallery 1989 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12636). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Guarding the Masterpiece, 1978 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 38 x 56. PROVENANCE: Private collection (bought from Royal Academy 1979 exhibition). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979, Reading 1983 (where miscatalogued as 1964 and in portrait format, 61 x 46)

Guardsmen in Spain, see No Bull in Spain, 1965

Guitar Lesson, The, c.1949 (signed). Pen and wash, 35.6 x 25.4. WR tackled the subject of John Roberts teaching his mother, Sarah, the guitar on three separate occasions – cf. The Guitar Lesson 1971 and Guitar Lesson 1976. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Arts Council Collection (1950). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Arts Council 1986, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 68.

Guitar Lesson, The – study, 1971 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 16.5 x 14. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Guitar Lesson, The, 1971. Oil on canvas. WR tackled the subject of John Roberts teaching his mother, Sarah, the guitar on three separate occasions – cf. The Guitar Lesson c.1949 and Guitar Lesson 1976. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972. Cf. The Guitar Lesson c.1949 and The Guitar Lesson 1976

Guitar Lesson, 1976 (signed and dated). Watercolour and pencil, squared, 20.3 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1992 > ? > Christie’s 27 Mar. 1997 (£1,552) > ? > Bonhams (Leeds) 12 Mar. 2002 (£1,850). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Guitar Lesson, The, 1976 (dated). Oil on canvas, 61.0 x 46.0. WR tackled the subject of John Roberts teaching his mother, Sarah, the guitar on three separate occasions – cf. The Guitar Lesson c.1949 and The Guitar Lesson 1971. In a notebook of memoirs, John wrote of a teacher at his school, ‘Dissatisfied with my work, he tossed my exercise book out of the window in a rage … I was puzzled; but forty years later, teaching my mother the guitar, I understood him well.’ PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Guitar Party, see Guitarists, The, 1975

Guitar Player, The, c.1920 (signed and inscribed). Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 33.5 x 44. PROVENANCE: Private collection, UK > Bonhams, 9 Mar. 2011 (£93,600) > Richard Green. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Paris 1921? (as Joueur de guitare)

(recto) Guitar Players, c.1950. Pencil, 23 x 12.5
(verso) Guitar Players
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Guitarist, The (John), 1943. Watercolour, 55 x 35. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue. Cf. Girl Playing Guitar c.1943

Guitarist, The, see Flamenco, 1960

Guitarists, The – study (aka Guitar Party), 1975. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 15 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Mrs P. Loftus > Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£3,290). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Guitarists, The, 1975 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 13 Dec. 2007 (£34,100). EXHIBITED: Royal Academy 1976

Gun Drill, c.1919 Medium and dimensions unknown (used as the cover illustration for the poetry anthology Wheels 1919).

Gun Team, see 4.5 Howitzer, c.1924

Gunners, The, see 4.5 Howitzer, c.1924

Gunners Carrying Cases, see Builders, c.1920?

Gunners Pulling Cannons, Ypres (aka Study in the War), c.1918, signed. Pencil, pen, black ink and watercolour, 27.4 x 47.7. PROVENANCE: Sir Michael Sadler > Leicester Galleries > Jane Rendel (1944) > Sotheby’s 8 Nov. 1989 (£25,300) > ? > Christie’s 4 June 1999 (£41,100) > Spink Leger Gallery > ? > Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert > ? > Fine Art Society. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1944, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert 2004, Fine Art Society 2009

Gunners Turning Out for an SOS. Battery Action at Night, c.1918. Pencil and watercolour, 32.3 x 331.9. ‘[A] feeling of restlessness and apprehension [was] experienced in the forward areas of a stabilized front at night. The burst, from time to time, of a star-shell spreading its pale white light over the trenches and no-man’s-land, then the anxious watch for enemy activity before the light slowly fades out into darkness once more. Again, the nerve-jarring rattle of machine guns, together with the thud, thud of trench mortars, or the sudden burst high in the night sky of three red Very lights, the SOS from our infantry calling for artillery action against a German raid on their trenches, and the uproar of the bombardment that followed’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1171). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Brighton 1982, Estorick Collection 2004. REPRODUCED: Estorick Collection 2004 catalogue, pl. 20

Gutter, The – study, 1934–5. Pencil, 24 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: J. T. Morais (1971) > ? > Bonhams 18 Mar. 2009 (£6,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Gutter, The – study, 1934–5. Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, 21.5 x 39.5. PROVENANCE: Alex, Reid & Lefevre > ? > Christie’s 5 June 1992 (£9,900)

Gutter, The (split as The Playground and Skipping after Toledo 1942 exhibition?), 1934–5. The Playground: Oil on canvas, 144 x 152.4. Skipping: Oil on canvas 144 x 70.5. The painting is signed and dated as 1936. However, the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue says that Roberts painted it at Haverstock Hill in 1934–5 and that ‘The canvas was divided into two after its return from the USA as it had been slightly damaged and also because Roberts decided that it would not sell on such a scale … he made this exceptionally large picture because he had heard that artists were being commissioned to paint pictures for a new Cunard or P&O liner’ (p. 16). PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Tate Gallery (T02346 and T02347). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (300 gns), Pittsburgh 1938, New York 1939, Toledo 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Liverpool 2001, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 82

Guy Fawkes Day, c.1938. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Bradford 1939 (£25)

Gymnasts, c.1943. Pencil and watercolour, 54.6 x 29.8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Gymnasts, see Athletes Exercising in a Gymnasium, 1920

Gypsies, c.1938. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Bradford 1939 (£10)

Gypsies, The – study, c.1942. Pencil, squared, 16.5 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Gypsies, The – study, c.1942. Pencil. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12638). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Gypsies, The – study, c.1942. Pencil and watercolour, 26.2 x 14.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980

Gypsies, The, 1942 (aka The Gypsy Camp dated as c.1943 in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings. Cf. Gypsy Encampment c.1942 and The Gypsies c.1950). Oil on canvas, 50 x 39. There were gypsy encampments at Marston, near Oxford, where William Roberts was living at the time. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Victoria Kingsley > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 106

Gypsies, The – study, 1946–7. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Elizabeth Gawne > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). Wrongly titled ‘The Poor Family’ on the back.

Gypsies, The, 1946–7. Pen, ink and watercolour, 36.5 x 25.7. The Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue says that this work is inscribed ‘The Gypsies’. No such inscription is visible on the work as mounted in the Tate store, although this does bear a label for the 1965 Tate exhibition on the back of it. The Reading 1983 catalogue gives the size as ‘370 x 365 mm’ and the date as c.1950 (after the Roberts family’s return to London from Oxford, where there had been gypsy encampments near their home). The Cambridge 1985 catalogue says it is signed ‘William / Roberts’, presumably indicating that the signature is on two lines – though that is not the case for the picture in the Tate store – and does not give a date. Despite these anomalies, it has been assumed that the same work, now in the Tate store, was shown in all three exhibitions as well as at the Leicester Galleries in 1949 as listed in the 1965 Tate catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (where dated c.1940)

Gypsies, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 15.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: Barbara Holliday > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers 15 Jan. 2019 (£5,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Gypsies, 1977. Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1978, Reading 1983

Gypsy, The (aka Sarah), 1948. Oil on canvas, 51 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mrs Nora Meninsky > Luke Gertler > Gillian Jason Gallery > private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1948, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 17. Cf. A Gypsy Girl 1925–6

Gypsy Camp, The, see Gypsies, The, 1942

(recto) Gypsy Encampment, c.1942 (or later – 1946–7?). Pencil, 18.5 x 13.5. Cf. The Gypsies, 1942
(verso) The Conductor
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Gypsy Flower Seller, The – study (aka Flower Seller), 1943–4. Red chalk and pencil, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Gypsy Flower Seller, The (aka Flower Seller), 1943–4. Black chalk and watercolour, squared, 54 x 33. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 > Sotheby’s 7 Nov. 1990 (£3,850) > Wolfsonian, Miami Beach. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972

Gypsy Girl, A (aka Head of a Woman), 1925–6 (Sarah Roberts, painted in Fitzroy Street). Oil on canvas, 41.5 x 31.2. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 23 June 1948 > R. H. Spurr > Leicester Galleries > Arts Council Collection (1950). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (1) 1926, Whitechapel Gallery 1928, Manchester 1929, Brighton 1929, Savile Gallery 1930 (as Head of a Woman: ‘Mr. William Roberts has a grave “Head of a Woman,” with an orange scarf’ – The Times, 3 July 1930), London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (18 gns), Hamburg 1932 (as Zigeunermädchen), Leicester Galleries (2) 1944, Leicester Galleries 1950, Arts Council 1951, Arts Council 1955, Arts Council 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Wolverhampton 1974 (no further details available for this), Liverpool 2018

Hairdressers, The, 1978– 9. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979

Hampstead Fair – study, 1950. Pencil, 19.8 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12720)

Hampstead Fair (aka Hampstead Heath), 1950. Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 63.5. PROVENANCE: London Transport Board (who commissioned it for a poster published in 1951). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, Sheffield etc. 1984. REPRODUCED: Harold Hutchison, London Transport Posters (London: London Transport, 1963), p. 71

Hampstead Heath, see Hampstead Fair, 1950

(verso) Hands – study for Dressmakers, c.1931
(recto) Going to Swim – study, 1930 (also dated 1933). Pencil, 26 x 18
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12678). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Hands Cracking Walnuts (aka Nutcrackers), c.1953. Pen and ink, 10 x 12.5. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972. It is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972(as Nutcrackers), Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

(recto) Hanging a Masterpiece – study (aka Art Dealers Hanging a Masterpiece), 1934. Black Conté crayon, 14.1 x 16.3
(verso) Three Figures – study for the recto, 1934. Black Conté crayon, 10 x 8.8
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Hanging a Masterpiece – study (aka Art Dealers Hanging a Masterpiece), 1934. Pencil, 20.3 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12644). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992, Tate Britain 2012

Hanging a Masterpiece, 1934. Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 43. ‘Made as a satire on commercial art galleries, with particular reference to Alex. Reid & Lefevre [where Roberts exhibited in 1935 and 1938]. The sign in the background is inscribed “Lennui Galerie Peinture Moderne (French Only)”, and the dealer is holding up a picture frame with the figures 33 1/3% [the gallery’s commission rate]’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. The kneeling figure may represent Tom Honeyman, whom Roberts dealt with at the gallery. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Mar. 1948, £25) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > private collection, London (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 91

Hanging a Masterpiece, see Art Dealers Hanging a Masterpiece, 1934

Happy Birthday to You, 1975. Pencil, 13 x 14. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Happy Family, The – study, 1924. Sanguine chalk and pastel, 12.7 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12685)

Happy Family, The, 1924 (also dated 1925). (Painted in Fitzroy Street.) Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1925) > Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth (1942/3). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (1) 1925 (‘receding somewhat from the tubular treatment of form by which he learnt his business as a designer and in gay innocence of colour recalling Fra Angelico’ – The Times, 5 June 1925), Manchester 1930, Arthur Tooth & Sons 1932, Newcastle 1934, Wolverhampton 1937, Whitechapel Gallery 1937, Tate Gallery 1965, Brighton 1979, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 16

Harem, The (aka The Haven, South London Art Gallery 1974), suggest 1916 (also dated 1913–19), signed and inscribed ‘The Harem’. Watercolour and pencil, 25.4 x 20.32. PROVENANCE: Richard Carline > Christie’s 13 Mar. 1981 (£2,800) > ? > Sotheby’s 15 May 1985 (£3,600) > ? > ? (by gift) > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 2016 (£93,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1956, Leicester Galleries 1963, South London Art Gallery 1974

Mahmoud Hashim Esq., c.1931. Oil on canvas. Mahmud Mohamed Hashim (1906–65) was one of eight children of Captain Noor Mohamed Hashim (1881–1944), one of the earliest Malays appointed to the elite Malayan Civil Service and, on his retirement in 1935, appointed a member of the Straits Settlements Legislative Council. In the 1920s Mahmud travelled to London to study law, and became part of the social circle of fellow law student A. P. de Zoysa, through whom he met William and Sarah Roberts. While in London he also met, and in 1928 married, Helen Grant. They had three sons: Harun (1929–2003, later a distinguished judge), Zain (1930–2011, later a general and army chief) and Noor (1931–2003). Mahmud and Helen eventually separated and in c.1937 Mahmud returned to Kuala Lumpur, where he became a judge, remarrying and having three more children. Helen’s second husband was Harold Hutchison (q.v.), and WR also produced portraits of both of them. According to notes left by John Roberts, Hashim returned ‘hurriedly’ to Malaysia c.1937, without this portrait, which in the late 1940s Sarah Roberts found in a junk shop and bought for £5, selling it on to Helen Hutchison at a small profit. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (18 gns)

Hat, The, c.1958. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. Cf. Trying on a Hat 1946–8

Haven, The, see Harem, The, suggest 1916

Having Tea, c.1941. Pencil and watercolour, 12.5 x 17. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Haycart, The – study (aka Haymakers), 1940–42. Black and sepia chalk, 16.2 x 11.2. PROVENANCE: Blond Fine Art > ? > Court Gallery (2010) > private collection, Germany. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Haycart, The (aka Hay Wagon), 1940–42. Pencil and watercolour, 25.4 x 17.8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 45 (where dated as 1940–41)

Haymakers, see Haycart, The (study) 1940–42

Haymaking (aka Building a Hay Rick), 1940–42 (‘when living in Oxford’ – Reading 1983 catalogue). Pencil and red chalk, 12.5 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Hay Rick (aka Building a Hay Rick, and cf. The Haycart 1940–42), 1940–42. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 17.8 x 26.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 (where dated c.1942), Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Hay Rick, 1940–42. Pencil and watercolour, not squared, 35 x 52.4. PROVENANCE: Earl of Cawdor. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Hamet Gallery 1971, British Council in China 1982

Hay Wagon, see Haycart, The, 1940–42

(recto) He Knew Degas – study, 1938. Pencil, 15 x 15
(verso) Head of Sickert, 1938. 7.5 x 5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12672). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

He Knew Degas – study, 1938. Pencil, 15 x 14. PROVENANCE: Pallant House Gallery (Wilson Gift, through National Art Collections Fund, 2004). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

He Knew Degas – study, 1938. Pencil, 26.3 x 26.3. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (E.824-1939). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004

He Knew Degas – study, 1938. Gouache and pencil, 25.4 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.325-1939). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1979. REPRODUCED: Victoria & Albert Museum, Twentieth Century British Water-colours (London: HMSO, 1958), pl. 18

He Knew Degas, 1938. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 91.5. The picture shows the painter Walter Sickert (1860–1942) working in bed while his third wife, Thérèse Lessore (herself a painter, 24 years younger), cuts photographs out of newspapers. In the 1920s and ’30s Sickert controversially based a number of pictures on newspaper photographs, and in early 1938 both the Daily Telegraph and The Sketch published a photograph showing him and his wife surrounded by a sea of newspaper cuttings in the artist’s studio at St Peter’s Thanet. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£33,000) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1938 (£85), Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: The Sketch, 23 Nov. 1938

Head of a Boy, see John, c.1932? and Recorder Player, The, 1935–6

Head of a Girl and Other Studies, c.1908. (The girl’s head is inscribed ‘A Smiling Girl’, and a study for a Crucifixion is inscribed ‘A Pitiful Object’.) Red chalk and pencil, 22.5 x 8.75. PROVENANCE: W. P. Robins > Victoria & Albert Museum (E.490-1921). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Head and Mask, c.1932. Two drawings on one sheet of paper: a girl’s head and a man with a mask on top of his head. Red chalk, 20 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(verso) Head of Sickert, 1938. 7.5 x 5
(recto) He Knew Degas – study, 1938. Pencil, 15 x 15
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12672). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Head of a Woman, see Miss Jane Tupper-Carey, Portrait of, c.1922 and A Gypsy Girl 1925

Head of a Woman, c.1929. (Is this Head of Woman [Cecilia Kramer] 1920–21, or Elsie 1922–3?) Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (45 gns)

Head of Woman [Cecilia Kramer] (aka Head of Old Woman), detail from Jewish Melody, 1920–21. Oil on canvas, 33.7 x 28.5. Official UK records of her family are inconsistent, but it seems likely that Cecilia Kramer – the mother of William Roberts’s wife, Sarah – was born in c.1870, into a Jewish family in Klintsy in what is now Ukraine, then the Chernigov province of Russia. Her maiden name is unknown, but her father was a farm bailiff. After her mother died, she found life with her father’s new wife difficult and joined a small travelling opera company which was visiting the town. She gave up the stage when, in about 1891, she married Max Kramer (1863?–1916), a fellow Jew who is said to have been a pupil of the Russian artist Ilya Repin, but she retained a repertoire of operatic arias and Russian folk songs. The Kramers’ first child, the artist Jacob Kramer, was born in 1892, and between then and 1906 they went on to have a further seven children. For a time they lived in St Petersburg, where Max enjoyed the patronage of Horace Günzburg, 2nd Baron Günzburg, a member of an important Russian-Jewish family of bankers, philanthropists and patrons of the arts. Increasing anti-Semitism in Russia probably prompted them to emigrate. When they arrived in the UK is not clear: they do not appear in the 1901 England and Wales census, but their daughter Millie was born in February 1904 in Leeds, where Max found employment retouching photographs. At the time of the 1911 census they had five surviving children – Jacob, Leah, Sarah, Millie and Isaak; a further three had died. Cecilia herself died in Leeds in 1947. This portrait appears to be a detail that has been cut from the large work Jewish Melody of 1920–21. According to the notes in the National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue (p. 18), Sarah Roberts remembered selling a portrait of Cecilia Kramer to Edward Marsh for £5, and was under the impression that the work was the portrait exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in 1984. However, it seems likely that it was in fact this work – known by the estate of Edward Marsh as Head of Old Woman – which was purchased by Edward Marsh, then being presented via the Contemporary Art Society to the Queensland Art Gallery in 1954. PROVENANCE: Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (acc. no. 1:0739). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Venice 1932 (as Testa di vecchia donna). REPRODUCTION: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 23. Cf. Jewish Melody 1920–21 and Cecilia Kramer c.1925

Head of Youth, c.1910. Drawing, 35.5 x 25.3. PROVENANCE: Sold 1984? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923?

(recto) Heatwave – study (aka Summer Heat and An Afternoon in the Park), 1957. Pencil, 15 x 17.3
(verso) Nude
PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s (?) 30 Sept. 1992 (as An Afternoon in the Park). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (as Summer Heat and dated c.1940–50)

Heatwave, 1957. Pencil and watercolour, 50.8 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. Cf. Heatwave c.1965

Heatwave, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, squared. PROVENANCE: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966. Cf. Heatwave 1957

Hedge, The, see Hedgecutting, c.1944.

Hedgecutting (aka The Hedge and Hedge Trimming), c.1944. Watercolour, 48.3 x 31.8. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Worthing Art Gallery (gift of Ernest Cooper 1972). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Worthing 1972

Hedge Trimming, see Hedgecutting, c.1944.

Helen (aka Helen Brook), c.1934. Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 32.9. Helen Knewstub (1907–97) was the eldest daughter of John Knewstub of the Chenil Galleries, where in 1923 Roberts had his first one-man show, and for a time she worked as her father’s secretary at the gallery. After an unsuccessful first marriage, in the early 1930s she spent some time painting in Paris, where her friends included the painters Michael Salaman and Gwen John. In 1937 she married the banker Ralph Ellis ‘Robin’ Brook – later also painted by Roberts – and after his knighthood, in 1974, she became Lady Brook. She became a volunteer for the Family Planning Association in 1949, and in 1963 she founded the Brook Advisory Centres to provide contraceptive advice for young people. She was appointed a CBE for her work in 1995. She was a friend of Sarah Roberts throughout her life. PROVENANCE: The sitter's family > National Portrait Gallery (2019, as Helen Brook, NPG 7077). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935 (‘[Roberts’s] portrait heads, such as “Helen,” are worth the most careful study for their translation of “facts into form,” and anybody who wishes to be given artistic dignity should be painted by him’ – The Times, 9 Feb. 1935)

Helen Brook, see Helen, c.1934

Her Baby (aka The Mother), c.1920. Black chalk and crayon over traces of graphite, squared, 37.0 x 30.4. Signed and inscribed ‘Her Kid’ (upper left) and ‘The Baby’ (lower right). In June 1919 Sarah Kramer had given birth to WR’s son, John David Roberts, in a Mission of Hope maternity home for unmarried mothers, in Streatham, London SW16. (She and Roberts married three years later.) This drawing apparently depicting disapproval towards a single mother may reflect her own experience or that of other unmarried mothers she had met in Streatham and whom she had talked about to WR. PROVENANCE: Augustus John (from Chenil Galleries, 1923) > ? > Leicester Galleries, London > Sir Ivor and Lady Batchelor (Nov. 1963) > Fitzwilliam Museum (PD.152-2015, bequest via the Art Fund, 2015). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Leicester Galleries 1954 (as The Mother), Cambridge 2018

High Wood, c.1916. Signed; title inscribed lower centre. Pen and ink with watercolour wash and pencil, 35.2 x 24.8. PROVENANCE: Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Sheffield 1945. REPRODUCED: Art and Letters, 2, 2 (spring 1919)

History of the Omnibus – study (aka London Buses and The Bus Stop), 1924. Pencil and watercolour, 12.75 x 37.5. A preparatory drawing for the large painting/poster installed in the London General Omnibus Company’s bus station that opened at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, in June 1924. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 (as London Buses), Hamet Gallery 1971 (as The Bus Stop), Parkin Gallery 1976 (as London Buses), Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

History of the Omnibus – study (aka The Bus Stop and The Buses), 1924. Pencil, ink and watercolour, 26 x 75. A preparatory drawing for the large painting/poster installed in the London General Omnibus Company’s bus station that opened at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, in June 1924. (The final picture also included horse-drawn buses.) ‘[Roberts] robotises his humans and animates his ’buses. Nor does he scruple to turn the stairs round on one ’bus in order the better to provide the full loop of the tail of his design, which undulates with the seductive and well-controlled rhythm of a snake back and across the picture to the ’bus slurring away quickly out of the top right-hand corner’ – ‘The Whitworth Gallery: Recent Additions’, Manchester Guardian, 17 Feb. 1928. PROVENANCE: Sydney Schiff > Contemporary Art Society (1926, as The Buses) > Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (1927). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1924 (as The Bus Stop), Australia and New Zealand 1954 (as The Bus Stop), Tate Gallery 1965 (as The Bus Stop), Museum of London 2003 (as The Bus Stop). REPRODUCED: C. Ross, Twenties London, pp. 142–3

History of the Omnibus, 1924. Painting/poster, 610 x 213. In his essay ‘Dealers and Galleries’, Roberts described the origin of this work as follows:
Muirhead Bone, who had written an introduction to the catalogue of the show [Roberts’s 1923 one-man show at the Chenil Galleries], brought Frank Pick, head of the Underground, to see it. As a result of their visit I was asked to do a poster, to be put up at the entrance of the British Trade Fair [the British Empire Exhibition] at Wembley. It was to be in two sections, about thirty feet over-all in length, and some eight feet in height. [It was eventually 20 ft x 7 ft.] The poster was to illustrate the development of the bus, from the horse-drawn to the mechanical.

The painting was done in a large, dingy petrol-smelling shed, part of a bus dŽp™t in Chelsea. Outside, adjoining my impromptu studio, was a spacious courtyard where bus-drivers practised skids, on ground made slippery with oil and water. Before I began the poster Bone decided the job would be too much for one person, and brought in Neville Lewis to paint one of the sections. Lewis, a South African, was known as ‘Nigger’ Lewis, because of his frequent use of negresses and negroes as models. I fear Lewis did not get much inspiration from his new model: the motor bus. His visits to this grimy bus dŽp™t were very irregular, and once in desperation he suggested that I should paint his portion as well. But ‘Nigger’ made no mention of payment.
In 1912 the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (to give it its full name) had taken over the London General Omnibus Company, and Roberts’s painting was incorporated into the frame of a bus/stop shelter in LGOC’s bus station which opened at the south-west entrance to the Wembley exhibition in June 1924, with LGOC roundels above the shelter’s roof. The Sportsman of 11 June 1924 described ‘two remarkable paintings’ at the newly opened bus station: one of them included ‘a poster, “Star Girl Murdered in Taxi”’ and the other – presumably Roberts’s – ‘seem[ed] to represent “men as trees walking,” or robots with that Wembley feeling’. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Wembley 1924 (and 1925?). REPRODUCED: Artwork 1, 3 (Feb.–Apr. 1925), p. 188, where captioned ‘Commissioned by the Underground Railway Company of London and placed at the entrance to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, 1924’

Holiday, c.1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Holy Child, see Nativity, c.1913

Homage à Stulik – study, 1948. Pencil, 18.4 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12657). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Homage à Stulik (inscribed ‘Stulik among the Artists’), 1948 (also dated as 1958 by Gillian Jason Gallery 1990). Pencil, ink and watercolour, 39.6 x 28.7. The Austrian chef Rudolph Stulik was the proprietor of the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel at 1 Percy Street, London W1, a favourite haunt of artists and writers. ‘Three of the artists were based more or less on Wyndham Lewis, Augustus John and Roberts himself, the other two were made up’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 29. ‘Note the halo’ – John Roberts in the catalogue of the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 exhibition where the pencil study for this picture was shown. PROVENANCE: Museum of Modern Art (gift in honour of Myron Orlofsky, 1978); ‘The Museum sent William Roberts forty-four questions concerning the picture’ – John Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 catalogue (see above). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England. (N.B. an early working of The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel 1961–2, but quite different)

Hombres y las Mujeres, Los – study, 1972 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 15.2 x 19.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Hombres y las Mujeres, Los, 1972 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 45. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Honeybees, see Bees Gathering Pollen, c.1953

Horse Dealers, The – study, 1955. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Horse Dealers, The, 1955. Watercolour and black crayon, 50.8 x 44.5. ‘ … in February 1958 I had my last exhibition at the Leicester … One drawing “The Horse Dealers” priced at £25 was sold to Fredddie Mayor at a reduced sum; because, as [gallery owner Oliver] Brown explained to me afterwards, “Mayor is a dealer.” However, Freddie lost no time in selling it almost immediately to the Tate Gallery at much more than the “Cut Price” he paid for it’ – William Roberts, Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990), p. 116. PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T00174). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Horsemen, The (aka People on Horseback), 1920 (dated). Watercolour and pencil on paper, squared, 15.2 x 18.4 PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12630). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

Horsemen, The – study, c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 18.4 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12641, as Peasants and Horseman). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976

Horsemen, The, c.1970. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 23

Horseplay on a Punt, c.1925. Black chalk, 11.5 x 15.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Horses and Plough, see Plough, The, 1944–5

Hostesses, The – study, 1959. Pencil, 146. x 19.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12651). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Hostesses, The, 1959. Watercolour, 27 x 37. PROVENANCE: Huddersfield Art Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester 1985, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 15

Hotel de la Tour Eiffel, c.1958. Pen and ink, 17.5 x 12.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

(verso) House, A. (‘On verso there is another drawing entitled A House’ – Parkin Gallery 1976 catalogue.)
(recto) Crowd, The, 1915. Pen and ink, 17.5 x 22.5. Cf. The Crowd c.1925
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Sheffield 1945, Parkin Gallery 1976

Howitzer in Action, 1918 (also dated c.1916–17). Inscribed ‘Roberts. Howitzer in action’. Pencil on paper, squared, 15.2 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Parkin Gallery (1975) > British Council? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, British Council 1997, Whitechapel Gallery 2010

Hungry Birds, The – study, 1957–8. Pencil, squared, 21 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Hungry Birds, The – study, 1957–8 (signed). Watercolour and pencil, squared, 42.6 x 22.8. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 12 June 1987 > ? > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1993 > ? > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1998 (£6,325)

Hungry Birds, The, 1957–8 (signed and inscribed). Oil on canvas, 167.6 x 91.4. (Partly based on Regent’s Park.) PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries 1958 > Hamet Gallery 1973 > ? > Sotheby’s 15 May 1985 (£11,000) > ? > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1987 (£10,000) > ? > Christie’s 11 Nov. 1988 (£13,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Royal Academy 1959, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 56

Huntsman, The, see Shooting Party, The, 1976

Huntsmen (aka Autumn), 1956. Pen and ink, 18.9 x 13.3. One of four designs commissioned by Ernest Cooper for a ‘Four Seasons Callendare’, as the Worthing 1972 catalogue called it – Spring Lambing (aka Spring), Sun-bathing (aka Summer), Huntsmen (aka Autumn) and Christmas Party (aka Winter). Cooper regularly used William Roberts’s drawings on a ‘healthy eating’ theme for business calendars for his London Health Centre Ltd in the 1950s. The calendar’s dates correspond to the year 1957, so it is likely that it was produced at the end of 1956. The set was ‘repeated as a calendar by Sarah and John [Roberts] in the 80s’ (Gillian Jason Gallery) and again by the William Roberts Society for 2002. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (assumed to be part of lot 114, ‘four signed drawings in pen and black ink, framed as one’, which with the cover artwork for the LHC’s Towards Better Health catalogue sold for £5,980) > Duncan Miller Fine Arts > Ruth Artmonsky > ? > Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£3,760 for the four calendar drawings). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Harold Hutchison, 1940 (signed and dated). Red chalk, 33.0 x 22.9. Harold F. Hutchison’s wife, Helen, and her first husband, Mahmoud Hashim (qq.v), had, like the Robertses, been part of the social circle of A. P. de Zoysa in the late 1920s and early 1930s. From 1947 to 1966 Hutchison (1900–75) was publicity officer for London Transport, where he introduced the idea of the ‘pair poster’, designed in two halves: one for an image and one for text, to allow more scope for both the artist and the copywriter. Roberts’s Hampstead Fair was produced for such a poster. Other artists commissioned by Hutchison included Edward Bawden, Abram Games and Tom Eckersley. Hutchison also wrote books on Edward II, Henry V, Richard II and Sir Christopher Wren among other subjects, as well as The First Six Months are the Worst: A Book on Babies for Older Children. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£990) > Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > Christie’s 21 Nov. 2019 (£3,750)

Helen Hutchison, c.1940? (signed). Pencil, 35.6 x 27.9. Helen Hutchison (1905–82), née Grant, was the wife of Harold Hutchison (q.v.), who from 1947 to 1966 was publicity officer for London Transport. With her first husband, Mahmoud Hashim (q.v.), she, like the Robertses, had been part of the social circle of A. P. de Zoysa in the late 1920s and early 1930s. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£550) > Sotheby’s 10 Jan. 1990

I’ll Put a Tuck in ’Em – study, 1948. Pencil, 17.8 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12669). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

I’ll Put a Tuck in ’Em, 1948. Watercolour, 35 x 25. The title refers to a response made by Stanley Spencer to Wilfrid Evill’s criticism of the large sagging breasts in one of Spencer’s pictures. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (£5,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£4,950). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Ibrahim Pasha – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 27)

Ibrahim Pasha, 1925–6 (women striking camp around their sleeping master). Pen and ink, 30.5 x 25. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: I maintained against Feisal the greatness of Ibrahim Pasha, leader of Milli-Kurds, in North Mesopotamia. When he was to march, his women rose before dawn, and footing noiselessly overhead on the taut tent-cloth, unskewered the strips of it, while others beneath held and removed the poles till all was struck and divided into camel-loads, and loaded. Then they drove off, so that the Pasha awoke alone on his pallet in the open air where at night he had lain down in the rich inner compartment of his palace-tent. He would get up at leisure and drink coffee on his carpet: and afterwards the horses would be brought, and they would ride towards the new camping ground’ (ch. 24). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 26). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 59

In the Park, c.1925. Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Warren Gallery > ? > Christie’s 1 Mar. 1974 (200 gns) > Hamet Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Warren Gallery > ? > Christie’s 1 Mar. 1974 (200 gns) > Rodney Capstick-Dale > Michael Parkin Fine Art > Lady Cecilia Dugdale > Bonhams 24 Nov. 2021 (£162,750). Cf. Bank Holiday in the Park 1923, Figures in the Park c.1924

In the Park, 1974. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 31.2 x 44. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

In the Straight – study, c.1949. Pencil, squared, 13 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

In the Straight, c.1949. Pencil and watercolour, 25.5 x 35. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 3 Nov. 1967 > Christie’s 21 Jan 1972 (£380) > ? > Sotheby’s 16 June 1976 (£260) > Sotheby’s 11 May 2012 (£67,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns)

In the Village of Fampoux (aka Filling in Shell Holes), spring 1917. Pencil and ink, 12.7 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 9 June 1978 (£280) > Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976, Sheffield 1998, Newcastle 2004, Sheffield 2010. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 44

In the Ypres Sector. An Infantry Duck-board Track being Shelled by the Germans, Nov. 1918 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 36.8 x 29.8. ‘As we moved towards our new position, the German artillery began to send over some nasty black bursts of shrapnel which exploded with a sickening crump above a column of infantry moving up to the trenches in single file on a duck-board track. From time to time, when someone in the file was hit, there was a cry of “Stretcher-bearer”. Meanwhile, the rest, without pausing continued on their way to the front line’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1170). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Brighton 1979, Madrid 2008. REPRODUCED: Malvern, Modern Art, Britain and the Great War

Indolence (the artist’s wife, Sarah), 1945. Red pencil, black chalk and watercolour, 35 x 52.5. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Sir David Scott (1952, £31.10.0) > Sotheby’s 19 Nov. 2008 (estimate £6,000–£8,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1952, Nuneaton 1960, Cambridge 1985

Infantry Fatigue Party: Forage Barn, 1919. Pen, pencil and wash, 40 x 30. PROVENANCE: Edward Wadsworth > Contemporary Art Society (1922) > Manchester City Art Galleries (1930). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Grosvenor House 1923, Arts Council 1955, Arts Council 1965, Tate Gallery 1965

Information Desk, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.5 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983. Cf. Across the Counter c.1958, which also features a diagonal counter with a doorway at the far end.

Inspecting the Calves, see Selecting Calves, c.1940

Intellectuals, see Card Players, The, c.1937

Interruption, The, c.1927 (inscribed ‘Interruption’ at top of sheet). Probably a study for Surprised, though the catalogue for the Cambridge 1985 exhibition describes it as ‘A study for an etching which was not executed’. Pencil, 15.9 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12700). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (where dated c.1922), Tate Britain 2012

Interval, The, 1923 (signed and dated and inscribed ‘The Interval’). Pencil and black chalk, 58.4 x 40.6. Similar in style and finish to The Connoisseur 1923, this is probably the drawing entitled The Box that was exhibited with that work at the Chenil Galleries in 1923 and priced at the same amount (£25). As with The Connoisseur, the drawing may depict figures from the London art world: the plump, balding man seated at the back seems to resemble Sir Cyril Butler, a former patron of Roberts and a founder, treasurer and later chairman of the Contemporary Art Society; but who the other figures might then be is not known. PROVENANCE: Mr and Mrs Sidney L. Bernstein > Phillips 12 June 1990 (£9,500) > ? > Sotheby’s 23 Nov. 2022 (£529,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: The Fleming Collection 2009

Interval before Round Ten, The – study (aka The Boxing Match), 1919–20 (signed). Pen, black ink and watercolour, squared, 36.2 x 48.4. A placard held aloft shows the number 9. This was changed to 10 in the finished oil. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 4 Mar. 1998 (as The Boxing Match, £15,525) > Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert (where dated c.1922). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Independent Gallery 1921

Interval before Round Ten, The, 1919 –20. Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 122.5. PROVENANCE: Osbert Sitwell (commissioned) > Christie’s 7 Feb. 1947 > Dr H. Widdup > Contemporary Art Society (1963) > Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (gift of Contemporary Art Society 1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Arts Council 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Melbourne 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 54

Invitation for a William Roberts exhibition at the Lefevre Galleries, March 1938. Printed in red and black ink, 11.5 x 13.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Ironing (aka The Ironing Board), c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 54.6 x 34. PROVENANCE: Private collection (2020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Anthony d’Offay (1) Gallery 1969

Is This The Civilization We Fought For? – study for Today and Yesterday, 1971. Drawing, 12.5 x 15.3. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Isle of Lesbos, The, 1970. Pencil, squared, 18.7 x 13.9. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 1 Mar. 2006 (£1,560)

Isle of Lesbos, The, 1970 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 50.2 x 34.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12682). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Italian Peasants – study, 1964. Pencil 18.7 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12717, as Group of People in a Field)

Italian Peasants, 1964. Pencil and watercolour, 51 x 33. PROVENANCE: Newport Museum and Art Gallery (acquired 1964). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1964. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 31. Cf. I Contadini 1964 – an alternative trreatment of the same subject

Jazz, see Dance Club, The, 1921

Jazz Party, The, see Dance Club, The, 1921

Jeu – study, see Dominoes c.1915

Jeu (aka The Draughts Players; also titled as Jen in error, New York 1917), 1915. Painting, 156.2 x 112.4 ‘A simple composition of lines and planes, in fresh, brilliant colors; an abstract suggestion of gaming’ – catalogue of the 1927 John Quinn sale quoted by Richard Cork (Vorticism and Its Allies, p. 85), who goes on to suggest that ‘the final painting would have been considerably more abstract’ than the study for JeuDominoes. (In 8 Cubist Designs (1969), Roberts states that Dominoes ‘could be a rough draft for one of those lost pictures, that was named … “Le Jeu”’. Though it is inscribed with the title ‘Dominoes’, the players are clearly playing a board game.) The painting Jeu was one of four works selected by Ezra Pound in London from the Doré Gallery Vorticist exhibition in 1915 for John Quinn, the American art collector, and transported to New York in 1916 and exhibited in the Vorticist exhibition at the Penguin Club in New York in 1917. It was purchased by John Quinn after it failed to sell at the exhibition, and became part of his collection (Vivien Greene, ‘Ezra Pound and John Quinn: The Penguin Club Exhibition 1917’, in The Vorticists (London: Tate, 2011)). The Penguin Club catalogue incorrectly titled this work as Jen; however, this error was corrected by John Quinn at a later date in his papers. PROVENANCE: WR > John Quinn > American Art Association Inc. 10 Feb. 1927 ($15) > S. Hamilton. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Doré Gallery 1915, New York 1917. LOST

Jewess, The (probably a portrait of Sarah Roberts), date uncertain. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Jewish Melody – study, 1920–21. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (exhibited as no.14, price £8)

Jewish Melody – study, see also Sarah with Guitar 1920–21

Jewish Melody, 1920–21. Oil on canvas, 160 x 90 (estimated size). Sarah Roberts with her mother, Cecilia Kramer. The notes prepared with the cooperation of Sarah and John Roberts in the National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue say that ‘[William] Roberts was very fond of his mother-in-law, Cecilia Kramer. She had tremendous character and intellect, thinking nothing of translating Russian poets into Yiddish … Although [in Jewish Melody] seen bare-headed, she apparently always wore a headscarf indoors’ (p. 18). Jewish Melody seems to have been destroyed (ibid.), but it appears that a detail of Cecilia Kramer was cut from the large painting and reframed with some additional paint masking background details. This portrait seems to have been bought by Sir Edward Marsh for the Contemporary Art Society and donated to Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. William Roberts reproduced Jewish Melody and the detail (Cecilia Kramer) in his self-published book Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts A.R.A. (1960). There the caption below the reproduction of the detail of Cecilia Kramer (p. 23) states that the work was owned by the Tate Gallery, but this does not appear to have been the case. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (exhibited as no. 3, price £130). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 65. Cf. Cecilia Kramer 1925 and Head of Woman [Cecilia Kramer] 1920–21

Jockeys, see Paddock, The, 1928

Jockeys Mounting – study (aka Before the Race), c.1949. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13.5. A date of ‘1928–30’ had been suggested by John Roberts in 1988, but the style is consistent with Roberts’s work of the late 1940s and it is now apparent that this drawing is a study for the watercolour Jockeys Mounting exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1949. PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold (1983) > Derek Williams (26 Nov. 1983) > Derek Williams Trust > National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (long-term loan). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Stow-on-the-Wold 1983 (as Before the Race)

Jockeys Mounting, c.1949 (signed). Pencil and watercolour, 35.1 x 25.1. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 20 June 2018 (£56,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns)

John, c.1923. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

John, c.1925 (date queried in National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue). Inscribed ‘Portrait of John’. Etching, 14.0 x 8.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (two impressions held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

John – study for etching, c.1925 (date queried in National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue: ‘John may actually have been a year or two older than this dating would allow’). Signed and inscribed ‘John’. Pencil, 11.7 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Manchester 1974?, National Portrait Gallery 1984

John, c.1927. Oil on canvas. (Also dated 1922 in Roberts, Paintings 1917–58; though John Roberts, b. 6 June 1919, seems here to be depicted at too old an age for this date to be accurate.) PROVENANCE: London Artists’ Association. REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 4, 28 (Oct. 1928), p. 273 (as Portrait)

John, see Boy, Portrait of a, c.1929

John (aka Artist’s Son John, Portrait of a Boy and Head of a Boy), c.1932? (also dated c.1930 and c.1931). Oil on canvas, 43 x 33. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) and (2) 1935 (‘so tenderly sympathetic and thoughtful in its expression of character, so simply painted, so firmly drawn and modelled, so suave and harmonious in colour’ – Frank Rutter, Sunday Tines, 17 Feb. 1935), Redfern Gallery 1942, Lefevre Gallery 1942, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

John (aka John Roberts), 1938. Pencil, 33 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 99

John (aka The Artist’s Son), 1941. Red chalk, 31.2 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Cambridge 1985. See entry for David c.1942

John, 1962. Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964

John, the Artist’s Son, Portrait of, see John with a Caterpillar, c.1930

John with a Caterpillar (aka Portrait of John, the Artist’s Son), c.1930 (also dated 1927). Red chalk on paper, 34 x 28. PROVENANCE: ? (bought February 1954) > Christie’s 27 Mar. 1997 (£1,150) > Pilgrim’s School, Winchester (Geoffrey Hammond) > Sotheby’s 9–16 March 2021 (online sale; £37,800). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 51

Joke, The, 1923. Black chalk and watercolour, squared, 25.4 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Muirhead Bone > ? > Sotheby’s 7 Nov. 1990 (£6,820). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Joke, The, 1923. Oil on canvas, 75 x 62.5. Jacob Kramer and black model Hélène Yelin at the Harlequin Café, Beak Street, Soho. PROVENANCE: Dr Henry Caplan > Dr Harold Caplan (by 1965) > Mary Chalot (France) > Sotheby’s 20 Nov. 2018 (£994,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 11

Joke, The, c.1969. Inscribed ‘The Joke’. Pencil, drawn on the back of a printed receipt, dated 13 Oct. 1969, from Lyons’ The Restful Tray café, Marble Arch: ‘This was one of William Roberts’s customary outings of an evening’ – Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Joke, The. Vignette, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.6 x 6.8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Joker, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Joker’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Jolly Evening, A, see Songs of Selim el Jezairi, 1925–6

Joy Ride, A (aka Joie de Vivre) – study, 1964. Pencil, squared, 18 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Joy Ride, A (aka Joie de Vivre), 1964. Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 35. This was reproduced as A Joy Ride in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 9, where it was noted as having been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1964; however, the closest recorded title of a work by Roberts exhibited around then was Joie de Vivre, in 1965. PROVENANCE: Mr Neville Burston (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Tate Gallery 1965

Judgement of Paris, The, c.1925. Oil on canvas, 43 x 33. PROVENANCE: Sir Michael Sadler > Leicester Galleries, London > Jane Rendel (1944) > ? > private collection, UK > Sotheby’s 3 Dec. 2003 (£12,000) > ? > Offer Waterman Gallery (2006). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1925, London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (15 gns)? (see The Judgement of Paris c.1931), Leicester Galleries (1) 1944. For the subject matter, see The Judgement of Paris, 1933.

Judgement of Paris, The, c.1931 (however this could be The Judgement of Paris exhibited with the London Group in 1925 and purchased at some point – perhaps from London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 – by Michael Sadler). Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (where the price of 15 gns indicates that Roberts did not see this as a major work). The same subject would be explored further a year or two later: see The Judgement of Paris 1933.

Judgement of Paris, The – study, 1933. Pencil, 10.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12687). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

Judgement of Paris, The, 1933. Pencil, 29.5 x 28. PROVENANCE: Alex, Reid & Lefevre > Dorothy Elmhirst (1935, 10 gns) > Dartington Hall Trust > Sotheby’s 16 Nov. 2011 (£18,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Judgement of Paris, The, 1933. Gouache. PROVENANCE: Mrs Robin Brook (née Helen Knewstub). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Judgement of Paris, The, 1933 (cf. paintings of the same subject in 1925 and 1931). Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 52. According to Greek mythology, when Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to a wedding banquet sponsored by Zeus, the king of the gods, she turned up anyway and threw a golden apple inscribed with the words ‘for the fairest’. Three goddesses – Hera (the wife of Zeus and queen of heaven), Athena (the goddess of war) and Aphrodite (the goddess of love) – claimed the apple, and Zeus delegated the Trojan prince Paris to judge between them. When the goddesses appeared before Paris as he tended his flocks on Mount Ida, he decided for Aphrodite, after she promised him the love of the world’s most beautiful woman, Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. His subsequent taking of Helen led to the Trojan War. PROVENANCE: WR > Wilfrid Evill (Apr. 1938, £25) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£109,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (4) 1933, London Artists’ Association 1934, Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Leicester Galleries 1937, Redfern Gallery 1942, Paris 1946, Contemporary Art Society 1947, Tate Gallery 1952, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester (2) 2016. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 87

Junk Stall, The, 1975. Pencil, 14 x 18.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Junk Stall, The, 1975 (signed and dated). ‘A memory of Reg’s stall, once a stone’s throw from this gallery [in Inverness Street, London NW1]’ – catalogue for Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 when the pencil version was exhibited. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 28 x 36.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(recto) Kaiser Rehearsing the Entry into Nish, The, 1916. Brown and black ink and wash, 17.8 x 13. Inscribed with title.
(verso) Study for same subject reversed (traced through), 1916. Pencil, 17.8 x 13
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Kaiser Rehearsing the Entry into Nish, The, 1916. Pen and ink, 25 x 17.5. In January 1916 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was entertained in the Serbian city of Nish by King Frederick of Bulgaria, the Serbian army having been defeated by the Austrians, Bulgarians and Germans. The Kaiser was greeted by a mock-Roman salutation: ‘Ave Imperator, Caesar et Rex. Victor et gloriosus es. Nissa antiqua omnis Orientis populi te salutant redemptorem, ferentem oppressis prosperitatem atque salutem’ – ‘Hail Emperor, Caesar and King: You are victor and glorious. In ancient Nish all the peoples of the east salute you, bringer of prosperity to the oppressed.’ PROVENANCE: Private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980

E. O. Kay, Major (aka Portrait of a Man Wearing a Monocle), c.1935. Pencil, 28.9 x 23.9. Edwin Ody Kay (1885–1969) was born in Worcester, the second son of William Kilbourne Kay, the founder of the mail-order company Kay & Co. Ltd. He was educated at Bromsgrove School, and served with the South Staffordshire Regiment during the First World War, towards the end of which he was captured at bayonet point by the Germans and held prisoner until the Armistice. On leaving the army he joined the family firm, becoming chairman and joint managing director following the death of his elder brother in 1933. When a majority shareholding was sold to Great Universal Stores Ltd, he retired and devoted himself to art, cricket and fine wine, and became a benevolent uncle to younger members of his family; he never married. He at one point owned a house opposite the Ascot racecourse, and a racehorse that never seem to win very much despite the money spent on its training and upkeep. His art collection included pictures by Sickert, Clausen, Augustus John, Tristram Hillier and Paul Nash, as well as supposed works by Constable, Rembrandt and Monet which proved not to be genuine when they were put up for sale. In 1943 he commissioned Stanley Spencer to paint his portrait. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 25 Oct. 2011 (£2,125) > Abbott and Holder

Keeper of the Apes – study (aka Apes Are So Intelligent), 1958. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13. A study for the frontispiece of Roberts, Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 5). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985. Cf. Apes Are So Intelligent c.1949

Keeper of the Apes, 1958. Pen and watercolour, 34.5 x 25. Frontispiece for Roberts, Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 5). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova, 1932. Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 81.6. Keynes (1883–1946) was born in Cambridge and educated at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge. After a spell at the India Office and teaching economics at Cambridge, he was recruited to the Treasury. After the First World War he was involved in drafting the financial clauses of the peace treaty, but resigned in May 1919 and began writing The Economic Consequences of the Peace (published that December), which urged the benefits of imposing less onerous reparations on Germany. Other major works included A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923), A Treatise on Money (1930) and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). Encouraged by his friends in the Bloomsbury Group, he was actively interested in the visual arts since 1914, and at the sale of Degas’s collection in Paris in March 1918 he bought works by modern French artists both for himself and on behalf of the National Gallery. In 1925, with Samuel Courtauld and others, he set up the London Artists’ Association to provide financial assistance to chosen artists, among whom, from 1927, was Roberts. Keynes wrote that Roberts was a painter whose work ‘will really live’ (to collector and textile millionaire Frank Hindley Smith, 27 Oct. 1933; quoted in Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, vol. 2 (London: Macmillan, 1992), p. 527), and he eventually owned 14 works by Roberts – more than by any other artist except Duncan Grant. (For Roberts’s views on the LAA and Keynes’s patronage, see his essay ‘Dealers and Galleries’.) Lydia Lopokova, whom Keynes married in 1925, had appeared in London with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1918, when Keynes was not impressed, commenting ‘She’s a rotten dancer – she has such a stiff bottom’ (Skidelsky, op. cit., p. 93). But when, towards the end of 1921, he saw her again in other roles for Diaghilev, including the princess in The Sleeping Beauty, he fell deeply in love with her, but before they could marry her marriage to Diaghilev’s former business manager Randolfo Barocchi had to be annulled. She later danced in productions of the Camargo Society, for which Roberts designed a backcloth. The double portrait may have been commissioned in 1930, but was paid for (£50) on 4 July 1932. Roberts had written to Keynes on 25 June 1932 for permission to include it in the LAA exhibition which opened on 29 June: ‘I had told Davidson … I thought it would be available. As however there is still some more to be done to the head of your wife she may not wish to have the canvas shown until everything is finished’ – Cambridge 1983 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge > National Portrait Gallery (NPG 5587, 1983). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association 1932 (‘Roberts is nothing if not a mannerist, but his hard, linear style is here modified in the interests of direct representation. He certainly has not flattered either in features or apparel the distinguished economist and the exquisite ballet dancer, the subjects of this group. There is a mechanical, unsympathetic quality in Roberts’s line; but he is an able portraitist É and in this case his disposition of the half-length figures within his picture-area gives a most attractive decorative character to the portrait’ – The Scotsman, 11 July 1932; ‘[T]he other picture [which attracts immediate attention] is the sedate and compact portrait of “Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Keynes” (No. 9), into the linear and chromatic arrangement of which Mr. William Roberts seems to have poured all his science and love of harmonious organisation and fundamental solidity. As a pictorial composition it has the dignified countenance of an old master; as a portrait, in spite of the very perfect rendering of the sitters’ features, it is deficient in human characterisation. The expressionless eyes with their empty, fixed, look, the unlit cigarettes held between exaggeratedly stylised liana-like fingers – (has Mr. Roberts lately been closely looking at Uccello?) – contribute to the solidarity of the composition, but also give the sitters the appearance of lifeless, mechanical dolls. Still, it is a fine piece of painting and one of the most consistent and accomplished works Mr. Roberts has ever produced’ – The Observer, 17 July 1932), Eastbourne 1953, Stockport 1954, Cambridge 1983, National Portrait Gallery 2000, Ghent 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 79

Lydia Keynes, c.1932. Pencil on paper, 42.5 x 32.5. PROVENANCE: King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985, Tate Gallery 1999. Cf. John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932

(verso) Lydia Keynes, Part of drawing of, c.1932. Red chalk. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). Cf. John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932
(recto) Camargo Ballet Backcloth, c.1931 (inscribed in black ballpoint ‘1925’, although the Camargo Ballet was in operation only from 1930 to 1933). Black chalk, 23.1 x 34. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 80. Cf. Ballet Rehearsal c.1931
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

(recto) Maynard Keynes – study for John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova, 1932? (dated 1930 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986). Red chalk, squared, 23 x 18
(verso) The Park Bench – study, 1933. Pencil, 16 x 25.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(recto) Maynard and Lydia Keynes, 1932 – study for John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932. Red chalk, 17.2 x 22.8. The device of two people looking at a single document is also used in The Artist and His Wife 1975. But in the final version of the Keynes double portrait the book is moved to Keynes’s right hand. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958
(verso) Study of Three Masked Figures, c.1932 – a preliminary drawing for The Masks c.1932. Black chalk
PROVENANCE: WR > Geoffrey Keynes (1965) > Milo Keynes > Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (bequeathed 2010). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Khamsin, The – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 21)

Khamsin, The – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 31.5 x 26.5. Signed and inscribed, ‘Khamsin’. Annotated by Roberts, ‘Comment on back by Lawrence’; annotated on verso by T. E. Lawrence, ‘I call this musical occasion quite good fun. Let’s have it, if it fits.’ PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 22)

Khamsin, The, 1925–6 (three faces covered by headcloths). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 20. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘It was a breathless wind, with the furnace taste sometimes known in Egypt when a khamsin came; and, as the day went on and the sun rose in the sky it grew stronger, more filled with the dust of the Nefudh, the great sand desert of Northern Arabia, close by us over there, but invisible through the haze. By noon it blew a half-gale, so dry that our shrivelled lips cracked open, and the skin of our faces chapped; while our eyelids, gone granular, seemed to creep back and bare our shrinking eyes. The Arabs drew their head-clothes tightly across their noses, and pulled the brow folds forward like vizors with only a narrow, loose-flapping slit of vision’ (ch. 42). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 20). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 229

King Lear, see Donald Wolfit as King Lear at the ‘Old Bedford’, 1949

Kit, 1923. Oil on canvas, 50 x 39. The Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue describes the sitter as ‘Kate Knewstub, a niece of John Chenil of the Chenil Galleries’. This refers to Katie Knewstub, later Katie Bissett-Smith (1907–2008), the daughter of Frederick Oliver Knewstub, whose brother John founded the Chenil Galleries, where in 1923 Roberts had his first one-man show. Katie and the elder of her two brothers, Fred (also painted by Roberts), lived with John Knewstub and his wife, Helen, after their mother (née Florence Nelson Fulcher) died in 1915, their father having died the previous year. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1953) > Wolverhampton Art Gallery (1959). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Whitechapel Gallery 1929, Venice 1932 (as Testa di fanciulla), Tate Gallery 1965

Kitchen, The – study (aka Some Recipes), 1942–5. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18.0 x 11.4. The lettering may have been added at a later date – perhaps to indicate how covers for publications of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd might look, though this particular design does not seem to have been used on a publication. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery > Bolton Museum and Art Gallery (acquired 1973 and dated by the gallery to 1935)

Kitchen, The, 1942–5. Watercolour, pencil and crayon, 55.9 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: B. Sorocold > Jonathan Clark Fine Art (2009). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Kite, The, c.1949. Pencil and watercolour, 54.5 x 36. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Cambridge 1985 (‘Stylistically it is close to the artist’s work of the late 1940s and early 1950s’ – John David Roberts, Cambridge 1985 catalogue). Cf. The Kites 1965–6

Kites, The – study, 1965–6. Pencil, squared, 13.5 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Kites, The – study, 1965–6. Pencil and watercolour, 35.5 x 40. PROVENANCE: Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971

Kites, The (aka People at Play), 1965–6. Oil on canvas, 167.6 x 182.9? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Cecilia Kramer, c.1925? (also dated 1921). Oil on canvas, 49.8 x 40.6. Official UK records of her family are inconsistent, but it seems likely that Cecilia Kramer – the mother of William Roberts’s wife, Sarah – was born in c.1870, into a Jewish family in Klintsy in what is now Ukraine, then the Chernigov province of Russia. Her maiden name is unknown, but her father was a farm bailiff. After her mother died, she found life with her father’s new wife difficult and joined a small travelling opera company which was visiting the town. She gave up the stage when, in about 1891, she married Max Kramer (1863?–1916), a fellow Jew who is said to have been a pupil of the Russian artist Ilya Repin, but she retained a repertoire of operatic arias and Russian folk songs. The Kramers’ first child, the artist Jacob Kramer, was born in 1892, and between then and 1906 they went on to have a further seven children. For a time they lived in St Petersburg, where Max enjoyed the patronage of Horace Günzburg, 2nd Baron Günzburg, a member of an important Russian-Jewish family of bankers, philanthropists and patrons of the arts. Increasing anti-Semitism in Russia probably prompted them to emigrate. When they arrived in the UK is not clear: they do not appear in the 1901 England and Wales census, but their daughter Millie was born in February 1904 in Leeds, where Max found employment retouching photographs. At the time of the 1911 census they had five surviving children – Jacob, Leah, Sarah, Millie and Isaak; a further three had died. Cecilia herself died in Leeds in 1947. The notes prepared with the cooperation of Sarah and John Roberts in the National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue say that ‘The painting originally belonged to Edward Marsh to whom Sarah remembers selling it for £5’ (p. 18). It seems likely that Sarah was confusing this portrait of her mother with the detail of Cecilia Kramer that was taken from the large painting Jewish Melody 1920–21, which was given by Edward Marsh to the Contemporary Art Society and now is in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. PROVENANCE: J. Capstick Dale > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. Cf. Jewish Melody 1920–21 and Head of Woman [Cecilia Kramer] 1920–21

Leah Kramer, c.1958. Leah Kramer (1893/4–1979) was one of William Roberts’s sisters-in-law. Pencil, 33.5 x 15. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (1) 1986. REPRODUCED: Gillian Jason Gallery (1) 1986 catalogue, pl. 65

Millie Kramer (aka Portrait of a Woman), date unknown – suggest 1925 from guessed age of Sarah Roberts’s sister (b. 1904, d. 1978). Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£1,150) > Robert Devereux. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 11

Labourers – study – see French Peasants c.1928

Labourers, c.1928. Mixed technique on canvas, 122 x 72.5. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983

Ladders, see Deposition from the Cross – study, c.1926

Lady, Portrait of a, c.1927. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Imperial Gallery of Art 1928

Lady, Portrait of a, see Ada Caplan, c.1930

Esther Lahr, 1925. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. Esther Lahr (1897–1970) was born Esther Argeband into a family of Jewish refugees in London. On leaving school, aged thirteen, she worked at Rothman’s cigarette factory in the East End, where she was an organiser for the International Workers of the World movement. She was also a member of Sylvia Pankhurst’s Workers Socialist Federation, and was a well-known open-air speaker. She had informally changed her name to Archer before, in 1922, she married Charles Lahr (1885–1971), who had left his birthplace in Germany in 1905, to avoid military service, and whom she had met at the Socialist Club in Charlotte Streett. She bought a bookshop at 68 Red Lion Street, Holborn, which she later ran with her husband as the Progressive Bookshop. She was a close friend of William Roberts’s wife, Sarah, and Roberts designed covers for her husband’s literary magazine The New Coterie, and also contribued illustrations for the books which Lahr published under his wife’s maiden name, E. Archer, to avoid anti-German prejudice. PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T01184, presented in 1970). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (1) 1926

Lake, The – study, 1964. Pencil, squared, 19 x 13. PROVENANCE: Unknown auction house 3 June 2003 >? > Jennings Fine Art (2012)

Lake, The – study, 1964. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 42 x 28. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£2,750) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Newcastle 2004

Lake, The, 1964. Oil on canvas, 190.6 x 129.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by the Tate Gallery (T00660, Chantrey purchase, 1964). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 107

Lakeside Scene – perhaps a study for The Boating Lake, 1977–8. Pencil, squared, 18.4 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Landing, The, 1942–4. Watercolour, 52.5 x 33.7. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (1946). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Landladies, see Gossips, 1968

(recto) Large Family at Table – study, 1953. Pencil squared, 16.5 x 11
(verso) Fragment of standing female life study, c.1953. Pencil, 18.5 x 13
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Large Family at Table, c.1953. Pen and ink, 17.5 x 15. Artwork used on the front cover of later printings of the booklet Salads for All Seasons published by Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. Most LHC publications were reissued with William Roberts’s designs by 1953, and it is likely that this drawing was produced around this date. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (it is likely, but not confirmed, that this was exhibited at Worthing as one of the ‘5 Cover Designs for publications for London Health Centre’), Abbot & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

Last ’Bus, The, c.1921. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (1) 1922

Laundry-mat, The, see At the Launderette, c.1970

Lavender Pickers, The, c.1943. Pencil and watercolour, 17 x 11. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 25 June 1980 (£550). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Lavender Pickers, The, c.1943. Pencil and watercolour, 52.5 x 34. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Janko Lavrin, Professor, 1919. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. Janko Lavrin (1887–1986) was born in Krupa in Slovenia. After studying in Prague and Susak (present-day Rijeka), on graduation he went to St Petersburg, where he studied archaeology and Slavic linguistics, before becoming a journalist, reporting from the Balkans during the First World War. When the Russian Revolution broke out he moved to London, where in the early 1920s he knew William Roberts in Fitrovia. From 1923 until his retirement in 1953 he was professor of modern Russian literature at the University of Nottingham, and he was also involved in organizing Slavic studies at universities in Glasgow, London and elsewhere. He published many books, mainly on Russian literature, and was married to the artist and engraver Nora Lavrin (née Fry). PROVENANCE: Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham

T. E. Lawrence, Portrait of, see Aircraftman Shaw, 1922

Leadenhall Market (aka Factory Agitation), 1913. Pen and ink, squared, 65 x 49.5. PROVENANCE: Sir Cyril Butler (commissioned) > Richard Troy > Redfern Gallery > Tate Gallery (T00581, 1963). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1963 (as Factory Agitation), Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974, Tate Britain 2012

Leah, life drawing, date uncertain. Pencil, 35.5 x 24. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Leave Train, The, 1916 (signed, inscribed and dated). Pencil and wash, 25.4 x 35.5. PROVENANCE: Arnold Bennett > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (£2 10s.) > ‘Hill’ (‘previously owned by a WW1 veteran who was hugely decorated’) > ? (dealer) > private collection (London) > Christie’s 23 Nov. 2016 (£377,000)

Leda and the Swan, suggest 1950s. Pencil, squared, 18.4 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993. Cf. Leda and the Swan c.1950

Leda and the Swan, c.1950? Pencil, 13.3 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12701). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Leda and the Swan (aka Leda), c.1950? (also dated 1957) (signed). Watercolour, black crayon and pencil, 33.0 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Mar. 1973 (£800) > ? > Christie’s 26 Oct. 1994 (£7,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958 (as Leda)

Legend of Cuchulain, The – design for a wall painting, 1912. In 1912 an ‘Exhibition of Designs for Mural Painting and for the Decoration of Schools and Other Buildings’ was held at Crosby Hall, Chelsea, in connection with which a competition was held for mural designs for specific locations, one of which was the proposed Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin. The warrior hero and demigod Cuchulain from Irish mythology may have been a suggested subject for this – other entries included ‘The Meeting of Cuchulain and Emer’ by Colin Rae and ‘Cuchulain at Rosnaill’ by Alfred Cooper – although the winning design for Dublin, by Frederick Cayley Robinson, showed ‘The Coming of St Patrick to Ireland, A.D. 430’. Roberts's entry, The Legend of Cuchulain, may have been the drawing later exhibited as Decapitations (q.v.), which has the same square format as the Rae, Cooper and Robinson designs and the same dimensions as the last of these. (The dimensions of the other two are not known.) But if this is the case it seems to have involved a very free mixture of elements of the Cuchulain legend. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Crosby Hall 1912

Leprechaun, The, see Self-portrait, c.1970

Lesson, The, 1953? Painting, 69.9 x 90.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Football Association 1953

Life Class – study, 1972 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared,12.5 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (where dated c.1973)

Life Class, 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 36 x 46.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990. REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue. Cf. Life Class 1975

Life Class, 1976. Watercolour, 20 x 15. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985. Cf. Life Class 1973

Life Class, 1976 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: WR > ? (1976) > Christies 24 Nov. 2016 (£37,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1976

Life Class. Vignette, date uncertain. Pencil, 10.7 x 6.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

(verso) Life drawing (unfinished)
(recto) Waiting Room, The, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 36.8 x 24.1
PROVENANCE: Roberts Sims > Camden Fine Art

Life Master, The, c.1949? (title inscribed above the picture). Pencil, 18.4 x 13.3. A study for The Art Master c.1949. In the Cambridge 1985 catalogue John David Roberts describes this as ‘A caricature of Roger Fry. Other drawings of Fry include the satirical No! No! Cezanne Never Used It, 1934 which depicts Fry with Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, exhibited at the Tate, 1965 no. 157 and The Critic Intervenes [c.1948] in the British Museum.’ However, the identification with Fry (1866–1934) seems uncertain, especially as the spectacles used as a key identifier in No!No! Roger… and The Critic Intervenes are missing here. But The Life Master and The Critic Intervenes do share the same theme: the critic or teacher imposing his ideas on the artist. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12639). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Cambridge 1985

Lift Operator at Holland Park Tube Station. Watercolour, gouache and pencil, 20.3 x 15.2 (signed upper left). PROVENANCE: Christie’s 4 Mar. 1983 (£750)

Lilac-bush, The, c.1957. Watercolour? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Lining Up: The Horse Race, c.1950. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Little Less, The – study, 1925–6. Red chalk and pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 6)

Little Less, The, 1925–6 (female nude with monkey). Pen and ink, 28 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’In the Mediterranean, woman’s influence and supposed purpose were made cogent by an understanding in which she was accorded the physical world in simplicity, unchallenged, like the poor in spirit. Yet this same agreement, by denying equality of sex, made love, companionship and friendliness impossible between man and woman. Woman became a machine for muscular exercise, while man’s psychic side could be slaked only amongst his peers’ (ch. 92). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 7). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 372

Lizard, The, see Lucertola, La, c.1963

George Ambrose Lloyd (1st Baron Lloyd), 1925. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 43.3. Commissioned by T. E. Lawrence for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. After Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Lloyd (1879–1941) began work as a director of his family’s steel-tube company before in 1905 becoming an unpaid honorary attaché in Constantinople. He travelled all over the Ottoman Empire and reported on trade prospects in the Persian Gulf. In 1910 he became a Liberal Unionist MP. On the outbreak of the First World War he was seconded to the intelligence department of the general staff in Egypt, and subsequently took part in the Gallipoli campaign and helped plan the Arab Revolt with T. E. Lawrence. After the war his appointments included governor of Bombay, High Commissioner in Egypt, and Secretary of State for the Colonies. Lawrence thought that Roberts had ‘been hard on Lloyd: deep in him is quite a decent fellow: thoughtful, considerate, well-read, charming. You haven’t been subtle enough: yet it’s a fine portrait, very like’ (2 Oct. 1925). PROVENANCE: Hamill and Barker (1962) > University of Texas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Texas 1962, National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Loading Ballast – study (aka Cassis 1922), 1927. Pencil, squared in red ink, on two pieces of paper, one 17.6 x 28.3, irregularly laid over the other, 19.7 x 33.7. The inscription ‘Cassis 1922’ has been added in ballpoint. A number of Roberts’s smaller works were annotated with dates and or titles in ballpoint, presumably at a later date. The widespread use of the biro in the late 1950s and the 1960s suggests that this annotation may have been made then, and it may not have been accurate so long after the execution of the work. The watercolour of the same scene was dated to 1927 when it was exhibited in 1928, and that date has been adopted here; but it is possible that there was a gap between this study and the completion of the watercolour. The reference to two pieces of paper comes from John Roberts’s notes for the Cambridge exhibition (where the picture was dated to 1922), but is not mentioned on the Tate website. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12679). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Abdy Galleries 1931, Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Loading Ballast, 1927. Drawing/watercolour. Possibly the watercolour (below) shown in Roberts’s 1929 London Artists’ Association exhibition; but that was priced at 20 gns, and the price of 7 gns asked for this work in 1931 may suggest that it was a smaller and/or less finished version that was shown then. And, in a posthumously published essay, Roberts complained of having to pay a commission twice through the London Artists’ Association scheme when Cooling Galleries (hosts of the 1931 LAA exhibition) sold Loading Ballast for 7 gns. The galleryÕs commission was £1 9s. 4d., and the LAA commission was 14s. 8d. – leaving £5 3s. 0d. for ‘the struggling young artist’ (‘Dealers and Galleries’, in William Roberts, Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings (Valencia, 1990), p. 108). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London ArtistsÕ Association (3) 1931 (7 gns)

Loading Ballast (aka The Mazeppa), 1927. Watercolour and drawing, 30 x 50. ‘Drawn during a visit to Cassis in the South of France’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. In his 1985 catalogue notes when the study for this picture was shown in Cambridge, John Roberts stated, ‘In 1922 Roberts went to stay at La Ciotat near the little port of Cassis in Provence,’ and Williams (2004) suggests that this was soon after the Robertses’ marriage in that year. The 1965 catalogue dates the picture to 1924. However, the 1928 London Group catalogue says 1927, and Roberts’s memory is likely to have been more reliable closer to the date of the visit. Cassis is a small fishing port near Marseille that attracted artists such as Matisse and Derain, and in the 1920s it was to become associated with a number of British artists, including the Bloomsbury set and the ‘Scottish Colourists’. Edward Wadsworth (1889–1949) visited the area in 1921, and returned with Richard Wyndham in 1924. There is a useful point of comparison between Roberts’s Loading Ballast and Wadsworth’s pictures of sailing boats and seaports of this period; however, a significant difference is Roberts’s emphasis on the workers loading the ballast, whereas Wadsworth’s seaports are devoid of people and activity. The name of the boat, The Mazeppa, can be clearly read – Mazeppa being the eponymous protagonist of an opera by Tchaikovsky and a poem by Lord Byron. PROVENANCE: Sir Arthur Bliss > Mr and Mrs Richard Gatehouse > Sotheby’s 13 Dec. 1967 (£280) > Cork Street Gallery > Professor Robert Holmes > Leeds City Art Gallery (bequeathed through the National Art Collections Fund, 1991). EXHIBITION HISTORY: St George’s Gallery (1) 1928, London Group 1928, London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (20 gns), Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 4, 28 (Oct. 1928), p. 275. Cf. Loading Barges 1913 and Port of London c.1922

Loading Barges, 1913. Pencil, 44 x 40. PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery > Mrs H. S. Mackintosh (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1963, Tate Gallery 1965

Locket, The, see Necklace, The, c.1967–8

London Buses, see History of the Omnibus, 1924

London Family’s First Visit to the Country, A, 1920 (signed and dated). Pencil and gouache, 20.3 x 15.0. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 10 June 1983 (£420) > ? > (by descent) > Bonhams 30 June 2021 (£21,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1979

London Group Gives a Reception, The (aka A Reception at the London Group; inscribed ‘London Group Gives a Reception’), 1948–9. Watercolour, pencil and ink, 25 x 35. The London Group was an English artists’ exhibiting society founded in 1913. Founder members included David Bomberg, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis, Christopher Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth. Its first exhibition was held in March–April 1914; Roberts exhibited three works in its second exhibition, in March 1915. During the First World War, Wyndham Lewis, Wadsworth and Epstein were among those who left the group, and when Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant joined, in 1917–19, the Bloomsbury Group became the most influential circle within it. Roberts continued exhibiting with the group until late 1949, though by then it had declined from its former importance. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£4,200) > ? > Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (estimate £3,000–£5000) > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1990 (£9,350) > Anthea Craigmyle. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 84

London Park, A, see Bank Holiday in the Park, 1923

London Zoo (aka At the Zoo) – designs for a bus-stop panel, 1953. Pen, ink and watercolour, 38 x 21.5. PROVENANCE: Commissioned by London Transport Board > Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (estimate £1,500–£2,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

London Zoo, see Brush Up Your Jungle, c.1953

Look Nobby, see Today and Yesterday, 1971

Look Nobby, the Civilisation We Died For, see Today and Yesterday, 1971

Love Song, The, see Party, The, 1971

(recto) Love Song in a Bar (inscribed ‘A Song of Love’), 1922. Black chalk, squared, 25 x 19. REPRODUCED: Whitworth Art Gallery website
(verso) Two Figure Studies – a man with an umbrella and a female figure with a cat
PROVENANCE: Leon Underwood gift to Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (1924). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Arts Council (2) 1980

Love Song in a Bar, 1922. Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: E. Beddington-Behrens > Sotheby’s 13 July 1960 (£160) > Wilfrid Evill (by whom inventoried as The Milk Bar) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > private collection, London (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, London Group 1928, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 61

Lovers, see Summer Night, c.1956–7

Lovers Eating Chocolates in the Theatre (aka The Chocolate Box), c.1953. Pen and ink, 12.5 x 10. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972. It is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (as The Chocolate Box), Abbot & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

Lovers in the Park, see Summer Night, c.1956–7

Lucertola, La [The Lizard] – study, c.1963. Pencil, 18.4 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12665)

Lucertola, La [The Lizard] – study, c.1963. Pencil and watercolour, 43.8 x 29.8. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Baroness Ann von Blixen-Finecke (1972) > Christie’s 16 July 2008 (£8,125)

Lucertola, La (aka The Lizard), c.1963. Oil on canvas, 216 x 152. PROVENANCE: Piano Nobile (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Reading 1983. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

Lucy’s Dream from Richard Feverel, 1913. An illustration in response to The Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George Meredith: ‘Lucy! … You remember what you said in your letter that you dreamt? – that we were floating over the shadow of the Abbey to the nuns at work by torchlight felling the cypress, and they handed us each a sprig’ (ch. 20). Richard Feverel seems to have been set as a Slade subject, as both Roberts and Bomberg produced work on this theme in 1913 – cf. Richard Cork, David Bomberg (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987). PROVENANCE: Julian G. Lousada (1914). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914 (no. 483). LOST

Luncheon, The, see Diners, The, 1968

Luxury – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 35)

Luxury, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘So we halted and lay under trees till half-past two, each of us trying to make a solid, though shifting shadow for himself by means of a doubled blanket caught across the thorns of overhanging boughs’ (ch. 39) … ‘even without the wind forbidding us there could have been no more luxury-halts under the shadow of blankets’ (ch. 42). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 34). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 161

(verso) Machine Gun and Man and Oil Can, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.7 x 12.7
(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – studies for Munitions Factory, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.5 x 12.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £400)

Machine Gun Factory Detail, see Anti Aircraft Gun, 1940

Machine Gunners, 1915. Ink. Published in Blast No. 2, p. 87 (as Drawing [sic]). In A Reply to My Biographer Sir John Rothenstein, Roberts wrote:
Early in 1915 Lewis, as editor, asked me to contribute two drawings to Blast No. 2, the War number. He said ‘keep them simple, it is easier for the Block-maker.’ I did two ‘simple’ line drawings, one I called ‘Machine Gunners’ the other ‘Combat’. When I gave Lewis these drawings I did not know what his contributions would be. Later when Blast was published my ‘Machine Gunners’ carried the plain title ‘A drawing’, whilst upon the front cover appeared a large intricate line drawing of machine gunners [titled Before Antwerp] by Lewis.
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974 (photo). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 29. LOST

Henry McMahon, Colonel Sir, 1922. Pencil. Commissioned by T. E. Lawrence for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Sir (Arthur) Henry McMahon (1862–1949) was an army officer and colonial governor. Most of his early career was spent on the north-west frontier of India. In 1894–6, as a British commissioner, he demarcated the boundary between Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and during 1904–5 he was the arbitrator on the boundary between Persia and Afghanistan. In 1913–14 he negotiated a treaty with China and Tibet. When the First World War broke out he was appointed High Commissioner for Egypt under the British protectorate, at the suggestion of Lord Kitchener. ‘Between 1915 and 1916, without closely consulting the British government, Sir Henry conducted secret correspondence with the sharif of Mecca [Hussein bin Ali], encouraging an Arab uprising against the sultan-caliph. In return for an Arab rebellion McMahon loosely promised independence in certain areas of the Middle East, but he failed precisely to stipulate which parts of former Turkish territory he was prepared to hand over to Arab control. The extreme vagueness of the often confused and ambiguous correspondence between McMahon and Hussein … caused almost immediate controversy between the Arabs and the British empire over its differing interpretations, especially about whether it included Palestine’ – Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In 1919 he was the British commissioner on the Middle East International Commission at the Paris peace conference. In 1920–25 he chaired the management committee and sat on the board of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, London. Lawrence described this portrait as ‘absolutely splendid: the strength of it, and the life: it feels as though at any moment there might be a crash in the paper and the thing start out’ (21 Oct. 1922). PROVENANCE: The location of the original is not known. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Edinburgh 1924; Leicester Galleries (1) 1927; annotated proof plate (25.5 x 19) from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

A. G. L. McNaughton, CB, CMG, DSO, Major-General, 1940 (dated ‘Feb. 1940’ and inscribed ‘Canadian Headquarters, Aldershot’). Pencil, 33 x 22.2. Andrew George Latta McNaughton (1887–1966) was a Canadian army officer, politician and diplomat. During the First World War he served in the Canadian artillery, inventing a very successful target-finder, and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel in command of all of the Canadian Corps artillery. After enlisting in the regular army in 1920, in 1929 he became Chief of the General Staff. Between the wars he became involved in a controversial scheme to house unemployed and homeless men in remote military-run work camps. Having returned to civilian life, from 1935 to 1939 he was head of the National Research Council of Canada. In 1939 he led the First Canadian Infantry Division into the Second World War. He was blamed for the disastrous raid on Dieppe in 1942, and was frequently criticised by the British generals. He resigned his command in Dec. 1943 and subsequently became Minister of National Defence and head of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. On 22 Feb. 1940 a member of the War Artists Advisory Committee wrote to a colleague that ‘Roberts came to see me yesterday morning at an extremely inconvenient time … He brought with him his drawing of General McNaughton which I think is good as a drawing, although I do not know how good it is as a likeness. Not everybody shares my view however’ (War Artists’ Archive, IWM GP/55/2). PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD13), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 1939 (one of a planned series of six, not completed)

Mahomet’s Ride – study (aka The Raiders), c.1968. Inscribed ‘The Raiders’. Pencil, squared, 17.1 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as The Raiders)

Mahomet’s Ride (aka Arab Horsemen – in Hamet Gallery 1971 it is dated as 1952), c.1967. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 30 x 24.8.PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > John Lee. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Manchester (2) 1973

Mahomet’s Ride, c.1967. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 76. The flag being carried appears to be that used by the Kingdom of Egypt in 1923–52, suggesting that the subject matter is not related to the Arab Revolt of 1916–18, the involvement of T. E. Lawrence in which is depicted in Revolt in the Desert 1952 and which was the subject of Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, for which Roberts supplied illustrations in the 1920s. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 12 Nov. 1982 (£5,400) > ? > Spink & Son > ? > Christie’s 27 Nov. 1997 (estimate £20,000–£30,000; unsold) > ? > Sotheby’s 10 Mar. 2005 (£33,600) > Osborne Samuel Gallery > Christie’s 13 Dec. 2012 (£73,250) > collection of Richard Ayre and Guy Burch. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 15

Making the Bed, 1963? Pencil squared in red chalk, 18.2 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Stephen Lacey Fine Art (2013) > ? > Bonhams 14 June 2017 (£6,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Making Beds, 1963 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 46.1 x 36.2. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery > Mrs and Mrs Maurice Wade (1973) > ? (by descent) > Christie’s, 9 Apr. 2019 (estimate £20,000–£30,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Manchester (2) 1973

Male, life drawing (given to student at Central School of Arts and Crafts), date uncertain. Black chalk, 22 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Abbott & Holder, Mar. 2001 (£400)

Male and Female – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 33)

Male and Female, 1925–6 (six figures fighting, laughing). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’Farraj and I hired three of the merry little women, wrapped ourselves up like them, and strolled through the village … Some Turkish soldiers crossed our party, and taking us all five for what we looked, grew much too friendly’ (ch. 93). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 32). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 119

Man, Portrait of a, c.1922. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1922

Man with Cylinder, 1940s. Red chalk, 10.5 x 9. (Is this Woman with Jar, exhibited at Reading in 1983?) PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Man Digging, c.1928. Pencil, 8.5 x 4.5
(recto) French Peasants (aka Workmen and Farm Workers) – a study for Labourers, c.1928. Pencil and watercolour, 19.3 x 11.4
PROVENANCE: Bonhams Chelsea 4 July 1996 (estimate £1,200–£1,800) > Bonhams 28 Nov. 1996 (as Workmen, estimate £700–£900) > Julian Lax > private collection (as Farm Workers, Feb. 1999). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1928, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

(verso) Man and Gate and Cow’s Head, A, c.1922. Black chalk, 16.5 x 21.6
(recto) Mounting Horses (aka A Racecourse Scene), c.1922. Black chalk and pencil, 16.5 x 18.4
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as A Racecourse Scene / Man, Gate and Horses Head)

Man Holding a Mask, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Portrait of a man holding a mask’. (Is the man WR?). Conté crayon, 9.2 x 9.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Man Lighting a Pipe, Portrait of a (self-portrait), 1948–9. Oil on canvas, 51.4 x 39.7. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Presented to Tate Gallery (T03075, 1980). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1950, Worthing 1972 (as no. 36, Self-portrait of the Artist). REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery website

(recto) Man with Newspaper under Arm, c.1950. Red crayon on blue paper, 8.2 x 4.8
(verso) Notes on The Mandrake (the Soho club where WR’s son played guitar)
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Man and Oil Can and Machine Gun, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.7 x 12.7
(recto) Anti-Aircraft Gun Factory – studies for Munitions Factory, 1940. Pencil and brown chalk, 17.5 x 12.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (where dated c.1942–2; priced £400)

Man Reading a Newspaper, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Man with Spade, see Workman with a Spade c.1935

Man with Tray on Shoulder and Going to Swim – study, 1930. Black chalk and brown chalk, two drawings on one sheet of paper, 25 x 16.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Man and Tree, date uncertain. Black chalk, 18 x 10.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Man Wearing a Monocle, Portrait of a, see E. O. Kay, Major, c.1935

Man and Woman Feeding a Child, see Family, The, 1934

Man and Woman Reclining by the Thames (aka Couple Reclining by the Thames), 1957? (It has been suggested that this shows Ernest and Sadie Cooper, but it doesn’t look much like them.) Pencil and watercolour, 34.9 x 53.3. PROVENANCE: WR > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£6,900) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2003 (£10,755). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Postcard published by Ernest Cooper

Mandolines and Guitars (aka Drawing of Party), undated, suggest 1925–6. Pencil, 33.0 x 43.2. This party scene in the style of the endpieces for T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, with musicians, naked dancers and drinking, seems to include references to Ingres’s Le Bain turc. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 136, with Spanish Melody c.1925–6 and Night Alarm 1925–6; £5 10s.) > ‘Bernard, St.’. REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 2, 7 (Jan. 1927), p. 4

Mannequins, The, c.1957. Pencil, squared, 19 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). Cf. Window Dressing c.1957

March of the Guards, The (aka The March of the Young Guards), c.1918. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 48.9 x 45.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Derby 1920, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980 (as The March of the Young Guards). REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay (2) 1980 catalogue

March of the Young Guards, The, see March of the Guards, The c.1918

Marionettes, c.1946. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 15 gns)

Marking the Pose, 1952. Pencil, 13 x 18, squared for transfer. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (where dated c.1960)

Marking the Pose, 1952. Inscribed ‘Marking The Pose’. Watercolour over black chalk, 35.5 x 51. N.B. a different composition from Setting the Pose c.1957. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mrs Nora Meninsky c.1959 > Blond Fine Art > Sotheby’s 11 Nov. 1987 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Christie’s 20 Oct. 2022 (£23,940). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1953, Leicester Galleries 1961, Tate Gallery 1965

Masked Figures, see Masks, The, c.1932

Masked Revels – study, 1953. Pencil, squared, 18.4 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Masked Revels – study, 1953. Pencil and watercolour, 38.1 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (£3,200) > ? > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1987 (£4,800) > ? > Christie’s 25 Jan. 1991 (£3,500) > Phipp & Co. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Masked Revels, 1953. Oil on canvas, 112.1 x 90.8. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£35,600) > Michael Heller > Christie’s 23 May 2012 (£181,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1954, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Southampton 1967 (loan), Worthing 1972, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 53. Bonhams sold a reduced-size copy of this picture as Circus Parade, with the signature Raphael Delorme, in 2005 (£956) and again in 2010 (£480).

(verso) Masks, The – study, c.1932? Pencil, with red-chalk figure from Tops (recto) in reverse, 24 x 18.5. (recto) Tops, c.1932. Pencil,18.5 x 24
REPRODUCED: Roberts, Early Years, cover
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Masks – study, c.1932. Pencil, 50 x 62.5. PROVENANCE: WR > Hamet Gallery > Saville Greenwood > James Hyman > Bonhams 12 Mar. 2002 (£15,000) > Lowell Libson Ltd (on offer at £42,000) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (4) 1933, Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Lowell Libson 2002, Newcastle 2004, Woking 2011, Bristol 2015, Bedford 2022. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 92

Masks – study, c.1932. Pencil. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001)? REPRODUCED: Roberts, Early Years, cover

Masks – study, c.1932 (signed). Pencil, watercolour and gouache, squared, 19.7 x 24.7. PROVENANCE: Christie’s South Kensington 14 July 2016 (£20,000)

Masks, The (aka Masked Figures), c.1932. Oil on canvas, 102 x 127. PROVENANCE: WR > Count Vanden Heuvel > Sotheby’s 4 Nov. 1959 (£220) > Wilfrid Evill > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 15 June 2011 (£457,250) > Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1933 (‘The picture of the exhibition … is “Masks,” by Mr. William Roberts. In a close-packed composition it represents a group of Cockneys, on a festive occasion, noisily absorbed in the joke of a toy horse belonging to a half-flattered and half-outraged little boy. From the presence of a real horse in the background it may be assumed that the joke is about “odds.” The pictorial interest is in the agitated internal movement, a raucous movement set up within the group by the play of masks and hands, and in the harsh but somehow pleasing colour. Everything seems to be dominated by the hoarseness of the implied voices’ – The Times, 13 Jan. 1933; ‘Among the pictures the honours go to “The Masks,” by Mr. William Roberts É Mr. Roberts might be called our Cockney Old Master. It is clear – in this picture and elsewhere – that he has made an intelligent study of the early Italians, but he seems to be able to apply their methods without any effect of discrepancy to the raciest contemporary subjects’ – Truth, 18 Jan 1933), Pittsburgh 1934, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (150 gns), New York 1939, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Chatsworth 2012. REPRODUCED: Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, vol. 2 (1956 edn), p. 28

Mazeppa, The, see Loading Ballast, 1927

Mediterranean Folk, 1934. Pencil, squared, 16.2 x 21.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Mediterranean Folk (aka Three Singers), 1934. Pencil, watercolour and gouache,16.5 by 21.5. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Dr B. Solomons > private collection (by descent) > Sotheby’s 10 June 2015 (£32,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1971

Mediterranean Folk, 1934 (William Roberts made a visit to Spain early in the 1930s). Oil on canvas, 33 x 43. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1962 > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£8,500) > Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (estimate £6,000–£8,000) > Sotheby’s 1 May 1991 > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Tate Gallery 1965, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 85

Meeting, The, c.1944. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Megaphone I, 1942. Drawing, 12.5 x 11. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Megaphone II, 1942. Drawing, 12.5 x 11. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Men Bathing, see Going to Swim, 1930

Men and Dogs, 1970s. Pencil and red chalk, 8.5 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Men Fishing, c.1975. Pencil, 20.3 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12694)

Men on Ladders, date uncertain. Faintly inscribed with ‘Pink Gloves’ and The Clothes Line’ (from erased underdrawing?). Pencil with red crayon border, 14 x 10.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Menin Road, The, c.1917. Ink, pencil and watercolour, 17.1 x 26.7. Inscribed ‘The Menin Road Oct. 1917’. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1168). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Washington, DC, 1919, Manchester 1964, Morley College Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 38

Christopher Milford, c.1944 (painted during the period 1944–7, when the sitter was up at Oxford). Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: The sitter’s sister > Phillips 22 Nov. 1994 (£800) > Abbott & Holder > ? > Christie’s South Kensington 23 Mar. 2107 (£21,250)

(verso) Milking Goats
(recto) Critic Intervenes, The (Roger Fry), c.1948. Pencil, 15.2 x 13.3. ‘The critic, book in hand, restrains the inspired artist. The watercolour of this subject is in the British Museum’ – Gillian Jason Gallery 1990
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12708). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

(verso) Milking Goats (aka Goats – study, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992)
(recto) Boxing Puppets, The, c.1960 (also dated c.1955 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue). Pencil, 17.5 x 12.5, squared for transfer, although no painting is known
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Milking Goats, 1948–53. Pen and ink, 22.5 x 15. This was sold at Sotheby’s on 3 Mar. 1999 in a lot with drawings produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, although there is no record of it being used in an LHC publication. It is likely that the drawing was produced between 1948 and 1953, when Roberts undertook a number of drawings and designs for Cooper. At a later date (after 1977) it was reproduced in large numbers as a greetings card for Cooper. It is probable that the drawing was exhibited by Cooper at Worthing in 1972, but it is not clearly identified in the catalogue. A pencil drawing entitled Farmyard with Goats and Geese was owned by Cooper in 1977, and it is likely that it is a study for Milking Goats. A detail of this subject, a man milking a goat, is on the verso of the drawing The Critic Intervenes c.1948. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (?); Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945). REPRODUCED: As a greetings card for Ernest Cooper. Cf. The Goats 1952

Miming – study, 1979. Pencil and watercolour, 15 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Miming, 1979 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61.0. Title suggested by John Roberts, who in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 exhibition catalogue wrote, ‘A theatrical rehearsal? The curtain is pulled back to show a duelling scene, against a backdrop of the full moon. The other characters including the barefoot Latin dancer, are hard to explain.’ PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > Offer Waterman (2018) > ? > Christie’s 19 Oct. 2023 (£25,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Miniskirts, see Doorstep, The, 1971

Mixed Bathing, c.1957. Watercolour? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Model, The – study, c.1956. Pencil, squared, 18 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Model, The, c.1956. Watercolour and crayon, 53.5 x 36.7. PROVENANCE: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund, 1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Melbourne 2007, Ballarat 2008

Model, The, 1974. Pencil, 17.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Model, The, see Portrait, The, 1974

Model on a Mattress, 1975. Pencil and watercolour, 19.7 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12658). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Model on a Table – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 14.2 x 18.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Model on a Table, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 29.5 x 41. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Monkey, The, see Zoo, The, 1977

Moonsnatchers, c.1919 (signed and inscribed). Pencil and watercolour, 20.3 x 12.7. Given WR’s association with the Sitwells at this time, this work may relate to the lines ‘Let us tear the paper moon / From its empty dome’ in Osbert Sitwell’s poem ‘“How Shall We Rise to Greet the Dawn?”’ (1918). PROVENANCE: Lawrences Auctioneers, Crewkerne, 8 Nov. 1990 (£2,200) > ? > Sotheby’s 11 Mar. 1992 (£4,180) > ? > Sandra Lummis, London > Christie’s 5 Nov. 1999 (£5,520)

Mother, The, see Her Baby, c.1920

Mother and Children Picnicking, c.1948. Pen and ink, 15 x 15. Artwork used on the front cover of the second edition of the booklet Good Food for Growing Children, published by Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd in 1948. This was the third in a series of four LHC recipe booklets, and was first published in either 1945 or 1946. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945). REPRODUCED: On the cover of Good Food for Growing Children and in a 1954 calendar for the London Health Centre

(recto) Mothers – study, 1944–5. Pencil, 18.0 x 12.8
(verso) Cows – study for The Punters c.1943. Pencil
PROVENANCE: Sally Hunter Gallery > private collection > Osborne Samuel Gallery

Mountain Climbers – study, 1969. Pencil, squared, 22 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Mountain Climbers, 1969 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 31.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Mounting Horses and Cows and Gate (study for Country Scene?), c.1922. Two drawings on one sheet of paper (25.5 x 14.6): black chalk 16 x 12.5 and black and red chalk 8.5 x 7.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(recto) Mounting Horses (aka A Racecourse Scene), c.1922. Black chalk and pencil, 16.5 x 18.4
(verso) Man and Gate and Cow’s Head, A, c.1922. Black chalk, 16.5 x 21.6
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as A Racecourse Scene / Man, Gate and Horse’s Head)

Moving Day, 1968. Pencil and watercolour, 19.1 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12713). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971

Moving Day, 1968. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 60. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (estimate £6,000–£8,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969, Parkin Gallery 1976

Mucking in – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 24)

Mucking in, 1925–6 (fourteen men around a large food dish). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 20. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘[T]wo men came staggering through the thrilled crowd, carrying the rice and meat on a tinned copper tray or shallow bath, five feet across, set like a great brazier on a foot … and the host called us to come and eat. We feigned a deafness, as manners demanded: at last we heard him, and looked surprised at one another, each urging his fellow to move first; till Nasir rose coyly, and after him we all came forward to sink on one knee round the tray, wedging in and cuddling up till the twenty-two for whom there was barely space were grouped around the food. We turned back our right sleeves to the elbow, and, taking lead from Nasir with a low “In the name of God the merciful, the loving-kind”, we dipped together’ (ch. 46). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 23). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 280

Munitions Factory – four preliminary sketches, 1940? Red chalk on three pages torn from a sketchbook, numbered in pencil 12, 13, 14. One drawing is labelled ‘Sawing’. Another, labelled ‘Painters’, has a detail in black chalk labelled ‘Grey Metal’. A third is a more schematic version of the ‘Painters’ drawing; the fourth is on the verso of this. PROVENANCE: Tate archive, William Roberts box 3

Munitions Factory – study, 1940. Pencil, squared, 13.5 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Munitions Factory – study, 1940. Pencil and red chalk, 16.5 x 27.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Munitions Factory – study, 1940. Pencil, 30 x 41.4. PROVENANCE: Ipswich Museum. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Munitions Factory – study, 1940. Pencil and watercolour, 30.5 x 42.4. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Mr and Mrs J. R. Capstick-Dale (Apr. 1970) > Parkin Gallery > Lady Dugdale > ? > Bonhams 18 Nov. 2020 (£200,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976

Munitions Factory, 1940. Oil on canvas, 80 x 120 (The munition factory was based on drawings made in Woolwich Arsenal.) PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD369), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 1941 > Salford Art Gallery (1947). EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Institute of Adult Education (1) 1941, Royal Academy 1945, Tate Gallery 1965, Whitechapel Gallery 1972. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 97

Munnings – The Will, see Grand Chantrey Stakes, The, 1949

Mural Wall Painting, Section of, Fulham Girls’ Club (Bishop Creighton House), 1912. Cf. Carpenters at Work 1912

Music Lovers, 1938. Pencil lightly squared in red chalk, 17.8 x 36.2. Inscribed in red chalk below lower right, ‘Size of panel 4'.6" x 9'.6" Drawing 1 1/2 inches to a foot’; below this the title Music Lovers. Inscribed in pencil above upper right various calculations, then, ‘18 x 14 1/2’ and ‘ Size of drawing 20 ins x 14 ins’ and below this ‘4'.6" x 9'.6"’. In the Cambridge 1985 catalogue John David Roberts states that this is a later development of Bohemians c.1934 with the addition of three more figures. The calculations on the edge of the sheet show that Roberts was at a fairly advanced stage in scaling this up as a large panel before the project was abandoned. The projected size is comparable with that of The Gutter, carried out around this time. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12637). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

Music Lovers (aka Bohemians), 1938. Watercolour, pencil and gouache, 17.2 x 36.2. Inscribed bottom right, ‘3 inch Mount’; signed in red top right and dated 1938 in black below the signature. This is a revisited version of the composition Bohemians with three additional figures and a simplified background. This watercolour was a companion piece to Intellectuals c.1937 and was probably intended as a study for a large-scale oil painting which was not carried out. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12661, as Bohemians). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942 (it is not certain which ‘drawing’ of Music Lovers was shown then, but the earlier red-chalk drawing seems to have been consistently referred to as Bohemians), Tate Britain 2012

Music Lovers, The, see Discs, 1978

Music Lovers, The, see Women Listening to a Recorder Player, 1978

Musicians, c.1940. Drawing, 22.5 x 21.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Musicians in a Bar, c.1922. Charcoal, 12.2 x 10.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12733, as Party Scene). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Party Scene)?, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Party Scene)?

Narkissos, c.1965. Pencil on paper, squared, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > collection of Richard Ayre and Guy Burch. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Narkissos, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 43. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Native Women Sorting Fruit (aka Fruit), c.1953. Pen and ink, 10 x 15. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972. It is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (as Fruit), Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

Nativity – study, c.1913 (inscribed ‘Study for a Nativity’ and signed). Charcoal and watercolour, 28 x 35.5. PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > Bradford Art Gallery and Museum. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Bradford 1934 (‘assorted bundles, which [Roberts] humorously styles a “Study for a Natavity [sic]”’ – Yorkshire Post, 1 Nov. 1934), Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937, Gateshead 1938, Bradford 1954, Hull 1956, Tate Gallery 1956, Hayward Gallery 1974, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003 catalogue, back cover

Nativity (aka Holy Child) – study, c.1913. (A Slade School Sketch Club subject and a projected entry for the Prix de Rome, 1913.) Pencil, ink and watercolour, 39 x 48. PROVENANCE: Private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cork, Vorticism and Abstract Art, vol. 1

Nature Morte, La – study (aka The Painter), 1948. Watercolour, 18 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989 (as The Painter), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as The Painter)

Nature Morte, La, 1948. Watercolour, 49.5 x 31.8 (signed top right and inscribed ‘La Nature Morte’ bottom left). In front of a painting of a naked couple embracing, a desiccated-looking bald old man sits painting a still life of a skull and a bottle. PROVENANCE: A. E. Hendrickson > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£500) > Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > Christie’s 8 June 1979 (£600) > Waddington Galleries > James Kirkman Ltd > Swindon Art Gallery 1985 (with the aid of a grant from the Victoria & Albert Museum). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Paris 1984, Serpentine Gallery 1985. REPRODUCED: ‘Recent Museum Acquisitions of British Works on Paper’, Burlington Magazine CXXVII, 992 (Nov. 1985), p. 842

Necklace, The (aka The Locket) (portrait of Sarah Roberts), c.1967–8. Oil on canvas, 53 x 41. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968 (as The Necklace). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 16 (as The Locket)

Negress, Portrait of a – Hélène Yelin, see Creole, The, 1923

Negro, life drawing, date uncertain. Pencil, 36.2 x 26.4. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

New Coterie, The, 1925 (Nov.) – design for a literary magazine. Page size 19 x 25.5. Black line drawing of six figures appearing to be workers or artists, with arms in the air, on a pink background. This design was also used with different colour backgrounds for nos. 2 (red background, spring 1926), 3 (green background, summer 1926) and 4 (yellow background, autumn 1926). The New Coterie ran from 1925 to 1927 and was edited by Russell Green, who had edited no. 6/7 of the original Coterie magazine (cf. Coterie No. 3, 1919); it was published by Charles Lahr (see The Prodigal Sets Out 1927–8; according to his daughter Oonagh, Lahr used to claim that Roberts’s design represented ‘the Communist Party at the barricade – all six of them!’). A different design, also by Roberts, was used for the covers of the final issues, nos. 5 and 6 (1927). REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 30

New Coterie, The – study for nos. 5 and 6, 1927. Pencil and gouache, 22.9 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12680). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

New Coterie, The, No. 5, 1927 (spring). Magazine size, 19 x 25.5. Features seven naked Olympic runners printed in black and red

New Coterie, The, No. 6, 1927 (summer and autumn). Magazine size 19 x 25.5. Features seven naked Olympic runners printed in blue and brown

S. F. Newcombe DSO, Colonel, 1922. Pencil, 35.5 x 33. Commissioned by T. E. Lawrence for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Stewart Francis Newcombe (1878–1956) served in the Boer War and in the First World War in France, at Gallipolli and in the Hejaz, where he was sent as head of the military mission involving T. E. Lawrence. In Seven Pillars of Wisdom Lawrence wrote that ‘Newcombe had constant difficulties owing to excess of zeal, and his habit of doing four times more than any other Englishman would do: ten times what the Arabs thought needful or wise … “Newcombe is like fire,” they used to complain; “he burns friend and enemy”; and they admired his amazing energy with nervous shrinking lest they should be his next friendly victims’ (ch. 41). Lawrence told Roberts, ‘I liked your drawing of Newcombe … the force and naturalism of this head took me by surprise … you have improved on him by putting into him a great deal of your spare solidity’ (27 Aug. 1922). And to Robin Buxton he described the picture as a ‘wonderful study … fierce almost to the point of terror’ (28 Aug. 1922). PROVENANCE: S. F. Newcombe > S. L. Newcombe. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 56

News, The (aka Public Library), 1941. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 11.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > Sotheby’s 10 Mar. 1982 (£600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972

News, The (aka Public Library), 1941. Gouache, 34.5 x 52. ‘Visitors to Oxford Public Library are anxiously scanning the newspapers for the latest war news’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > J. E. Barton > Bertram Roth > John Christopherson > Sotheby’s 21 May 1986 (£7,150) > ? > Austin/Desmond Fine Art > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965, Woking 2011, Hastings 2016, Bedford 2022

News, The (aka The Evening Edition), 1967. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 12 Nov. 1975 (£450). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 7

News, The, see Newspapers, 1926

Newspapers (aka The News), 1926 (also dated as 1924). Oil on canvas, 51 x 61. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Wilfrid Evill (Jan. 1960, £120) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 15 June 2011 (£169,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists' Association (2) 1927, Leicester Galleries (2) 1927, Leicester Galleries 1960, Contemporary Art Society 1961 (as The Family?), Brighton 1965, Strasbourg 1970, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester 2007

Night Alarm – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 21.6. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Night Alarm, 1925–6 (signed). Pen and brush, 21.6 x 21.6. Drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 136, with Mandolines and Guitars c.1925–6 and Spanish Melody c.1925–6; £5 10s.) > ‘Bernard, St.’. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926 (as Night Bombing)

Night Bombing, see Night Alarm, 1925–6

No Bull in Spain (aka Guardsmen in Spain), 1965. Pencil, squared, 19 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Guardsmen in Spain c.1970), Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (as No Bull in Spain)

No Bull in Spain, 1965 (signed and inscribed). Pencil and watercolour, 44 x 32. Two men wearing ceremonial uniform similar to that of the British Life Guards drink and smoke at a café table in front of a bullfight poster showing matadors and bulls. The title presumably puns on ‘bull’ as military slang for excessive discipline or ceremony. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

No! No! Cézanne Never Used It, see No! No! Roger, Cézanne Did Not Use It, 1934

No! No! Roger, Cézanne Did Not Use It (aka No! No! Cézanne Never Used It), 1934 (also dated c.1938). Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 26.9. The picture shows Clive Bell, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry. See the next catalogue entry for notes on the subject matter. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12724). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983. REPRODUCED: Burlington Magazine CXXXVIII, 1115 (Feb. 1996), p. 68

No! No! Roger, Cézanne Did Not Use It, 1934. Drawing and watercolour, 35.6 x 43.2. This satirical picture shows Clive Bell correcting Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell for deviating from the artistic practice of Paul Cézanne (a self-portait by whom hangs in the background). Duncan Grant is also painting in the background. William Roberts’s closest involvement with the Bloomsbury Group, of which Fry, Grant and the Bells were members, was in 1913, when he briefly worked at Fry’s Omega Workshops. In the following year Clive Bell published Art (London: Chatto & Windus), in which he declared that ‘Cézanne is a type of the perfect artist‘, and ‘a whole generation of otherwise dissimilar artists have drawn inspiration from his work. That is why it implies no disparagement of any living artist when I say that the prime characteristic of the new movement is its derivation from Cézanne’ (p. 142). In the first years of the 1930s Roberts was brought back into contact with the Bloomsbury Group through Maynard Keynes. Roberts joined the London Artists’ Association, whose founder members were Keynes, Samuel Courtauld, Fry, Grant and Vanessa Bell. In Roberts’s memoir ‘Dealers and Galleries’ (written in the early 1970s and published posthumously) he was scathing of the involvement of the Bloomsbury artists in an association created to support ‘young and struggling’ artists. In 1934 – the date of this watercolour – Duncan Grant’s resignation from the LAA led to the collapse of the association. Although the critical influence of Fry and Bell within the art world was waning by 1934, Fry did give two well-attended public lectures on British painting (subsequently published under the title Reflections on British Painting). In her book Romantic Moderns (London: Thames and Hudson, 2010) Alexandra Harris describes Fry’s position on British art as being ‘calculatedly provocative’ and quotes him as saying, ‘I have to admit sadly that British art is not altogether worthy of [British] civilisation’ (p. 129). It would be surprising if William Roberts, this most British of artists, was not offended by this attack on British art, and it is possible that this satirical work was a response either to this or to Duncan Grant’s actions. Roger Fry died in September 1934. This work does not appear to have been exhibited until 1942. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Mar. 1947, £25; inventoried as Bloomsbury Group) > Miss Honor Frost > Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (bought from the Evill Collection, 1966). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Leicester Galleries (3) 1952, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1979, Sheffield 1998, Tate Gallery 1999, Newcastle 2004, Sheffield 2010. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 92

Nobby, Is This The Civilization We Fought For?, 1971. This is dated as c.1960 in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 catalogue, but the subject seems to suggest a later date. Pencil, 26.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Not Guilty, see Accused, The, 1971

Novices (aka The Boxing Match), c.1921. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 50.9 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: P. Bilbie gift to Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (1933), where it is dated as 1914. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (1) 1922 (cf. Outclassed 1925), Estorick Collection 2004. REPRODUCED: Estorick Collection 2004 catalogue, pl. 25

(verso) Nude
(recto) Back-door, 1942–3. Pencil, 12.2 x 15
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

verso) Nude
(recto) Heatwave – study (aka Summer Heat and An Afternoon in the Park), 1957. Pencil, 15 x 17.3
(PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s (?) 30 Sept. 1992 (as An Afternoon in the Park). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (as Summer Heat and dated c.1940–50)

(verso) Nude (fragment)
(recto) Design for Fifth Vortex Pamphlet, 1958. Ink, 17.8 x 13.3. ‘Newspaper readers, including William Roberts, look at their newspapers in astonishment’ – Gillian Jason Gallery 1990. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Vorticism and the Politics of Belles-Lettres-ism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 5)
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12653). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

(verso) Nude
(recto) (recto) Bird Nesting, c.1966 (also dated c.1971–4, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986). Pencil, squared 18.5 x 13.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Nutcrackers, see Hands Cracking Walnuts, c.1953

Miss Joan O’Connell, Portrait of, 1940 (signed and dated). Red chalk, 41 x 36. PROVENANCE: Cooper Barrington LLP, Wrexham, 11 Nov. 2023 (estimate £600–£800; unsold) > Cooper Barrington LLP, Wrexham, 9 Dec. 2023 (estimate £200–£300; unsold) > Cooper Barrington LLP, Wrexham, 20 Jan. 2024 (£122)

Liam O’Flaherty, 1926. Black and red chalk, 20.3 x 14.6. Published in The New Coterie No. 3, summer 1926, and as a frontispiece to O’Flaherty’s play Darkness: A Tragedy in Three Acts (London: E. Archer, 1926). O’Flaherty (1896–1984), born on Inishmore, in the Aran Islands, was a novelist and short-story writer. During the First World War, serving in the Irish Guards, he was wounded in the head by an exploding shell and suffered severe shell-shock which led to his being invalided out of the army with a small pension. In January 1922, with a number of unemployed dockers, for three days he occupied the Rotunda building in Dublin, raising a red flag over it and giving himself the title of ‘Chairman of the Council of the Unemployed’, before fleeing to Cork. He then went to London and began trying to write. His first novel to be published was Thy Neighbour’s Wife (1923), and thereafter he published more than a dozen novels – mainly set in Inishmore or Dublin – and several collections of short stories, the last of them written in Irish. His thriller The Informer (1925) was filmed in 1929 and again (by John Ford) in 1935. He also published two autobiographies: Two Years (1930) and Shame the Devil (1934). Darkness, the play for which this portrtait was used as a frontispiece, was first performed in Irish at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in March 1926. In order to establish performance copyright in the English version, O’Flaherty asked the publisher, Charles Lahr, to arrange for a reading of the play, or even just the first act, and this reading took place at William Roberts’s Chalk Farm studio on 27 April 1926 with an amateur cast which included Sarah Roberts. PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > ? > Christie’s 15 July 2008 (£1,188, described as William O’Flaherty) > National Library of Ireland. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937

Object Lesson – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Study for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 12 (part))

Object Lesson, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 30.5 x 24.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 44). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 29

(recto) Oboe Players, c.1936–8 – suggest 1937. Pencil, 25.4 x 15.2
(verso) Oboe Player, c.1936–8 – suggest 1937. Pencil
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12656). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Oboe Players (aka Oboes), c.1936–8 – suggest 1937. Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 30. Roberts’s son, John, played oboe at school and university, and for a time studied it with Augustus John’s son David Nettleship (David Anthony Nettleship John, 1902–73). PROVENANCE: WR > Ronald and Sylvia Lewin (1938) > Rosemary Lewin. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (25 gns)

Oboes, see Oboe Players, c.1936–8 – suggest 1937

Odalisque – study, 1930. Drawing, 13.5 x 20.5. (This drawing is a study for the painting of a nude female figure which is shown on the wall in the background of John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993. REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue

Off Duty – study, 1925–6. Red chalk and pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 36)

Off Duty, 1925–6 (sleeping figure with bird). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘I hid under some bushes near the well for hours, against the heat, very lazy, pretending to be asleep, the wide silk sleeve of my pillow-arm drawn over my face as veil against the flies’ (ch. 52). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 37). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 308

Old Man, Portrait of a, see Slade Model, Portrait of, 1912

Old Man with Dog, c.1945. Pencil and watercolour, 26.5 x 14 Sold 1985 (£400)

Old Man Carrying Wood, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 54.5 x 36.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist, 1948 > Sotheby’s Chester, 17 Jan. 1986 > ? > Sotheby’s 10 Sept. 2003 (£2,400). Cf. Faggot Collector c.1944

Old Marston Ferry, See Ferry, The – study, 1944

Old Women and Girl, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 17.8 x 11.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12640). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Olive Picking, see Woman Picking Nuts, c.1945

On the Beach, c.1929. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London ArtistsÕ Association (1) 1929 (20 gns). Is this Swimmers Resting c.1925?

On the Beach, see By the Seaside – study, 1977

On the Tube, see Underground, The, c.1970

On the Wire – study, 1972. Pencil, 19.1 x 14.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12711)

On the Wire – inspired by With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, 1972. Pencil, charcoal and watercolour, 46.9 x 36.8. ‘The drawing entitled On the Wire is not taken from my own First World War artillery experiences in Flanders, but from a little book by George Coppard: With a Machine Gun to Cambrai. His description of the dead Tommies hanging on the barbed wire of No-Mans-Land, some kneeling as if in prayer, was the starting point for my drawing’ – Roberts, Paintings and Drawings. With a Machine Gun to Cambrai (1969; rev. edn 1980), by George Coppard (1898–1985), contains the author’s First World War memoirs, including accounts of his front-line service with a machine-gun team in the battles of Loos, the Somme and Arras. Roberts’s picture evidently relates to Coppard’s description of the scene following a British attack early in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 (ch. 21):
Immediately in front, and spreading left and right until hidden from sight, was clear evidence that the attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead, many belonging to the 37th Brigade, were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high-water mark, Quite as many had died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in a net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as though they were praying: they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall.
PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (6172). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 43

Once Upon a Time, 1957. Design for Roberts, A Reply to My Biographer Sir John Rothenstein (Vortex Pamphlet No. 4). Pen and ink, 17 x 12. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

One Way Street, see Street Corner, c.1965

Opera, c.1925 (also dated c.1920, Sotheby’s 1984). Etching, 9.8 x 10. Signed, edition 3 proofs. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s Dec. 1984 > ? > R. Artmonsky (1999) > ? > Christie’s 18 Apr. 2002 (£823). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Cambridge 1985, Artmonsky Arts 2001. REPRODUCED: Harold Monro (ed.), The Chapbook: A Yearly Miscellany, no. 40 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1925), p. 86

Operations Room – study for The Control Room, 1941. Pencil, 26.7 x 31.4. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Salford Art Gallery (1981). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Operations Room – study for The Control Room, 1941 (though dated 1942). Watercolour and gouache, 26.2 x 31. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Salford Art Gallery (1981). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Orange Picking – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 19.0 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Orange Picking, 1970. Pencil and watercolour, 55.8 x 37.9. PROVENANCE: Trevor Dannatt > Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971, Manchester 2006

Orchard, The (aka Gathering Apples) – study for Apple Pickers 1936. Watercolour and gouache, 26 x 20. PROVENANCE: George Eumorfopoulos > Sotheby’s 9 Oct. 1946 > Piccadilly Gallery > Lord Clwyd. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns), Tate Gallery 1965

Orchestra, The, see Recital, The, c.1944–5

Outclassed – study for etching (boxing subject), c.1925. Pencil, 10.9 x 8.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of Sarah Roberts > British Museum (1995). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Outclassed, c.1925. Etching. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.452-1962)

Outside the Pawnshop, see Brass Balls, 1922

Overbacks, 1915. Painting, 133.4 x 108. ‘A vorticist impression, portrayed with great vitality in an ultra-modern composition of colors, against a millet-yellow background’ – catalogue of the 1927 John Quinn sale quoted by Richard Cork (Vorticism and Its Allies, p.  85), who goes on to suggest that ‘the final painting of Overbacks would have been far more abstract than this putative preliminary study [Street Games].’ It was one of four works selected by Ezra Pound in London from the Doré Gallery Vorticist exhibition in 1915 for John Quinn, the American art collector, and transported to New York in 1916 and exhibited in the Vorticist exhibition at the Penguin Club in New York in 1917. It was purchased by John Quinn after it failed to sell at the exhibition, and became part of his collection. PROVENANCE: WR > John Quinn > American Art Association Inc. 10 Feb. 1927 ($25) > F. F. Brumbach. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Doré Gallery 1915, New York 1917. LOST

Overbacks, see Street Games, 1915

Oxford Manner, The – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Sketch for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 39 (part))

Oxford Manner, The – study, 1925–56. Red chalk and pencil, 28 x 19 cm. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 4)

Oxford Manner, The, 1925–56 (figure reading, lying on his front propped up on his elbows). Pen and ink, 28 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’So after two or three comfortable days in Khartoum, resting and reading the Morte d’Arthur in the hospitable palace, I went down towards Cairo, feeling that the responsible person had all my news’ (ch. 16). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 5). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 395

Pack Mules, c.1918. Inscribed ‘Ration Mules for the Front Line’. Ink, pencil, red chalk and wash, 31 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1165). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Woking (2) 2014. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 12

Paddock, The – study, 1928. (In the Paddock, same dimensions, is dated as c.1935 in Anthony d’Offay (1) 1969 catalogue.) Pencil, 20.3 x 15.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971

Paddock, The – study, 1928. Pencil and watercolour, 41 x 32. PROVENANCE: Lefevre Fine Art (2012)

Paddock, The (aka Jockeys), 1928. Oil on canvas, 123.1 x 92.2 PROVENANCE: Samuel Courtauld > Contemporary Art Society (1928) > Bradford Art Gallery (1935). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association 1928 (‘This is a most entertaining picture, combining the two strong points of the artist: his racy and slightly sardonic humour and his ingenuity as a composer in a convention of tubular forms. In general form the composition suggests a glazed pottery group – and indeed the picture might be described as a Toby jug subject in modern terms … We are not sure that artistically the picture does not fall a little between two stools – the decorative interest of colour distracting from the unity of the composition as a whole, but is is a genuine “slice of life” and we should very much like to hear stable opinion upon it’ – The Times, 4 July 1928), Chicago 1928, Manchester 1930, Whitechapel Gallery 1931, Arthur Tooth & Sons 1932, Liverpool 1933, Tate Gallery (1) 1935, Tate Gallery 1946, Copenhagen 1956, Tate Gallery 1960, Portugal 1962, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1991, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, vol. 2, pl. 10

Painter, The, see Nature Morte, La – study, 1948

Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts A.R.A. – unused cover artwork, c.1960. Ink, 22 x 16. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts A.R.A. – cover artwork, c.1960. Pen and ink, 22 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). Cf. The Art Gallery 1973

Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts R.A. – cover artwork, 1976. Ink, 25 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Palm Foretells, The – study, 1937. Pencil, squared, 13 x 10.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Palm Foretells, The – study, 1937. Pencil, 25 x 20. PROVENANCE: WR > Harold Hutchison > Sotheby’s 12 Nov. 1975 > James Hyman Fine Art. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Bradford 1939 (as Palm Reading, £10)?, Tate Gallery 1965, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Artmonsky Arts 2001, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 14

Palm Foretells, The (aka Palmistry and Fortune Telling) – study, 1937. Watercolour and gouache, 25 x 20. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1953) > Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery (1954). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns), Bradford 1939 (as Palm Reading, £10)?, British Council 1939, Leicester Galleries (2) 1953, Australia and New Zealand 1954 (as Palmistry), Wakefield 1962, Liverpool 1976. REPRODUCED: Studio 166 (1953), p. 33

Palm Foretells, The, 1937. Oil on canvas, 98 x 75. PROVENANCE: Presented by London Artists’ Association (Samuel Courtauld, Frank Hindley Smith and Maynard Keynes) > Bristol Art Gallery (1938). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (175 gns), Toronto 1947, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 89

Palmistry, see Palm Foretells, The, 1937

Paper Hat, The (aka The Artist in a Paper Hat), 1960. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1966, Parkin Gallery 1976, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 13)

Paper Woman, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Paper Woman’. Red chalk, 13.5 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

Parade, The, c.1946. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949

Parallel Bars, 1958. Pencil, 20 x 25. Cf. Parallel Bars 1970

Parallel Bars, 1970. Pencil, 19.1 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12719)

Parallel Bars, 1970 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 48.2 x 35.5. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 24 May 2012 (£21,875). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

(verso) Park Bench, The – study, 1933. Pencil, 16 x 25.5
(recto) Maynard Keynes – study for John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova, 1932? (dated 1930 in Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986). Red chalk, squared, 23 x 18
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Park Bench, The (aka Group of People Sitting on a Bench), 1933. Pencil, 22.4 x 28. PROVENANCE: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1939.113). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (10 gns), Bradford 1939?

Park Bench, The, 1933. Pencil and gouache, 23.5 x 28.0. PROVENANCE: Spink & Son, London 1990 > Christie’s 23 June 1994 (£4,025) > Austin/Desmond Fine Art > Alexander Walker (Oct. 1994, £5,200) > British Museum (by bequest, 2004). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns), Bradford 1939 (£10)?, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1983, Spink & Son 1993, British Museum 2004

Park Bench, The (aka A Seat in the Park), 1933. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Mrs Berry > Sotheby’s 6 Apr. 1960 (£189) > Sir David Scott > Sotheby’s 19 Nov. 2008 (£37,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1933 (as A Seat in the Park 30 gns), Anglo-German Club 1933 (as Seat in Park)

Park Café, see Tea Garden, The, 1928

Park Scene, 1974 (dated). (Regent’s Park with seven figures – some on benches, some lying on the grass – and wind-blown trees in the background.) Pencil, squared, 13 x 17.5 PROVENANCE: Ms J. Richards (purchased from the Roberts family)

Parliament (Hugh Dalton Speaking), 1938. Red Conté crayon, 17.5 x 22.5. Hugh Dalton (1887–1962) was born in Neath, in Wales, and educated at Eton, King’s College, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and the Middle Temple. During the First World War he served on the French and Italian fronts. After the war he taught at LSE and in 1924 became Labour MP for Peckham. In 1929 he became Labour MP for Bishop Auckland and a junior Foreign Office minister. He lost his seat in 1931, but was re-elected in 1935. In 1940 he became Minister of Economic Warfare, and he subsequently served as President of the Board of Trade and, after the 1945 general election, Chancellor of the Exchequer, losing this position after a leak of details of his 1947 Budget speech. In a catalogue note when this picture was exhibited at the Gillian Jason Gallery in 1992, John Roberts wrote, ‘It is in my memory that the whole family visited the House of Commons, when I was a student in the late thirties. It was Hugh Dalton speaking on Mining Subsidence, and he accused the Minister of enveloping the subject in “a fog of words”. I have not been able to find confirmation in Hansard.’ An online search suggests that Dalton used the phrase ‘fog of words’ only once in the House of Commons, in a debate on air defences on 25 May 1938, when he said that ‘the Prime Minister the other day enveloped the whole question [of air parity with Germany] in a fog of words.’ Before this debate Arthur Henderson MP had moved ‘that leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the payment of compensation for damage caused by mining subsidence’. It seems likely that, over fifty years later, John Roberts confused the two speeches and that 25 May 1938 was the date of the Robertses’ visit which prompted this picture. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Parrot, The – study (aka Teaching the Parrot), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 22.5 x 16.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Parrot, The, 1977. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Parson’s Pleasure – study, c.1944. Pencil, 16 x 20.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (?)

Parson’s Pleasure, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 15.9 x 19.7. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£3,096) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2002 (£2,629). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Parson’s Pleasure (aka On the Lawn), c.1944. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. Until 1991 Parson’s Pleasure was a secluded area for male-only nude bathing on the River Cherwell in the south-east corner of the University Parks at Oxford; the area now forms part of the parks. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (mistitled The Ferry; £2,860) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (mistitled The Ferry and dated 1940; £10,450) > Sotheby’s 20 Apr. 1991 (estimate £8,000–£12,000) > Samantha Frank > Osborne Samuel > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2023 (estimate £100,000–£150,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal British Artists Society 1949 (priced £75), Royal Academy 1980, Newcastle 2004, Nottingham 2006, Chichester 2007, Chichester (2) 2016. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 104

Parting, The, 1914. (‘A number of my abstract pictures painted during the period 1913–1915 have been lost or destroyed; The Parting, exhibited at the Twentieth Century Art show at the Whitechapel in 1914, is one of this batch’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 8.) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914. LOST

Parting, The, c.1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938

Party, The, 1915 ‘Several paintings, including The Draughts Players and The Party, shown with the Vorticists at the Doré Gallery and afterwards bought by John Quinn of New York, were somehow destroyed in America’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 8. However, no work was exhibited at the Doré Gallery or in New York under the title The Party. It is possible that this is an alternative title used by Roberts for the work known as The Dancers 1913–14.

Party, The – study, c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 15.9 x 19.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?, Hamet Gallery 1973 (where dated c.1960)

Party, The (aka The Love Song), c.1970. Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 76.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1974 (£1,900) > ? > Sotheby’s 15 Dec. 2010 (£31,250) > ? > Pierre Bergé & Associés, Paris, 25 Feb. 2013 (estimate 40,000–60,000 euros; unsold) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 27

Party at Number Four, A, c.1937? From 1935 to 1939 WR and his family lived at 6 Provost Road, South Hampstead / Chalk Farm, NW3, where his neighbour at no. 4 was the elderly artist Henry William Eccleston (1853–1938). (At around the time when the Robertses moved to no. 6, the artist Gladys Hynes seems to have been using studio space at no. 4 while living in nearby Haverstock Hill, and after Eccleston’s death she and her sister lived at no. 4.) This picture may therefore be an alternatively titled The Card Players (with Eccleston being the elderly figure reading a newspaper?). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1937 (£21)

Party Scene. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993? Is this Musicians in a Bar c.1922?

Party Scene with Drummer, suggest 1960s. Pencil, squared, 18 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Pastures, The (aka The River), 1942. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Pastures, The (aka The River), 1942. Oil on canvas, 39 x 50. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Victoria Kingsley. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965

Patron, Le, 1920–23. Oil on canvas. (Is this Monsieur Rudolph Stulik 1920?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Pavement Scene, see Street Acrobats, 1923

Pawnshop, see Brass Balls, 1922

Peasants, c.1928. Drawing/watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (20 gns)

Peasants, c.1928. Oil on canvas. (Is this Labourers c.1928, a study for which was exhibited as French Peasants?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (not for sale)

Peasants, see Women Playing with Cats, c.1919?

Peasants, The, see Family, The, 1934

Pegasus, date uncertain. A design for a magazine cover? Pencil, squared, 18 x 10. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

People on Horseback, see Horsemen, The, 1920

People at Play, date uncertain. LOCATION: Christie’s Images

People Swimming, c.1925? Black chalk and pencil, 16 x 13. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Performing Bear, The, see Dancing Bear, The, 1970

Pet, The, c.1958. Pencil, squared, 19.0. x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Pet, The, c.1958. Ink and watercolour, 45.6 x 31.3. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Pet, The, 1974. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.8. PROVENANCE: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (1975) > ? > Bonhams 17 Mar. 2010 (estimate £12,000–£16,000; unsold) > Bonhams 17 Nov. 2010 (£9.600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 41

Pet Lamb, The, c.1961. Pencil, 18 x 13. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Picking Petals (aka Two Girls Holding Flowers, but is perhaps mother and child rather than two girls), c.1960. Pencil, squared, 16 x 13.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (as Two Girls Holding Flowers)

Picture Dealer, The, see Connoisseur, The, 1923

Pigeon, The, see Sarah with Pigeon, c.1958

Pigeon Carriers (aka Pigeon Fanciers), 1928. Watercolour and drawing, 66 x 59. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1953) > Wakefield City Art Gallery (1954). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (20 gns), Whitechapel Gallery 1929, British Council 1939, Leicester Galleries (2) 1953, Tate Gallery 1965, Liverpool 1976, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 71

Pigeon Fanciers – study, 1928. Pencil, 20.3 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12695). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Pigeon Fanciers, see Pigeon Carriers, 1928

Pigeons, c.1938. Oil on canvas, 56 x 42. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > ? > Christie’s 20 June 1995 (£12,650) > Barclays Art Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (50 gns), Liverpool 1938 (50 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942

Pigeons, see Feeding the Pigeons, c.1938

(recto) Piggy-back Fight – study for a detail from The Gutter, 1934–5. Pencil, 17 x 11.5
(verso) Dustman, 1934. Red chalk, 15 x 9.7
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Pimps in a Bar (study for Café Royal Scene c.1921), c.1921. Pencil, 17.8 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12675). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue

Pimps in a Bar, see Café Royal Scene, c.1921

Pipers, The – study, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18.5 x 15. PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Fosse Gallery, John Lindsey Fine Art, Stow-on-the-Wold > ? > Dreweatts, 19 Oct. 2022 (£11,050)

Pipers, The, 1977. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5. ‘For many years Sarah played the reed pipe, and attended meetings’ – John David Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1980, Reading 1983 Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Pippa and Bino, c.1930. Oil on canvas. A portrait of Philippa (‘Pippa’) Hiatt Stanley-Clarke (later Pippa Irwin, 1918–2016; trained at Michel Saint-Denis’s London Theatre Studio (est. 1935) and appeared on stage and in films as Philippa Hiatt) and her brother John Oliver (‘Bino’) Stanley-Clarke (1920–81). PROVENANCE: Mrs Marjorie Stanley-Clarke. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (not for sale)

Plage, La (inscribed as title), c.1917. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 15.2 x 12. In his Memories of the War to End War 1914–18, Roberts describes how in the winter of 1916–17 he accompanied a Lieutenant Duthey as a servant for a week’s rest to Paris-Plage near Boulogne. The title may refer to this location. PROVENANCE: WR until 1980 > private collection, London, until 1987. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, New York 1984, New York 1987, Parkin Gallery 1996

Plane Spotter, The, 1919. Pencil, pen and ink, squared and inscribed, 19.6 x 14.5. Probably a study for The Aeroplane Scout 1919. PROVENANCE: Fischer Fine Art > ? > Christie’s South Kensington 3 Mar. 1986 (estimate £400–£600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976

Playground – study for Primrose Hill, c.1930. Pencil, colour wash and watercolour, 38 x 56. PROVENANCE: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (bought 1956)

Playground, The, see Swings, The, 1967–8

Playground, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Playground’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 7 x 11. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Playing with Cat, see Woman Playing with a Cat, 1943–4?

(recto) Playmates – study (portrait of Ernest Cooper with Igor, his borzoi), 1957. Pencil, squared, 19 x 12.5
(verso) Fragment of Female Life Drawing, c.1957. Pencil, 14 x 18.7
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Playmates, 1957 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 51.5 x 36.5. ‘Playmates features Ernest and Sadie Cooper’s borzoi, Igor, their Siamese cat, Tara, and the pigeons, goats and muscovy ducks with which they shared their Sussex mill’ – Sotheby’s catalogue, 3 Dec. 1998. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Dec. 1998 (£4,830). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. REPRODUCED: The Worthing 1972 catalogue notes that this image was used for a Christmas card. Cf. Ernest Cooper, Esq. c.1949

Pleasure Barge, The (Have a Ride), c.1929. Pencil, ink and red crayon, squared, 21.6 x 31.1. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay Gallery > Mrs and Mrs John Milnes-Smith (22 Sept. 1969, £147) > Sotheby’s 13 July 2007 (suggested date 1923–5; £14,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Pleasure Cruise, 1975 (dated). Watercolour, body colour and pencil, squared, 40.5 x 33. PROVENANCE: Paisnel Gallery > ? > > Christie’s 8 June 1990 (£4,620) > ? > Christie’s 1 Mar. 2000 (£2,760) > ? > Sotheby’s 6 Dec. 2000 (£6,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1976

Plough, The – study (aka Horses and Plough), 1944–5. Pencil, squared. PROVENANCE: WR > Eleanor de Zoysa > Kumari Jayawardena. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Colombo 1947

Plough, The, 1944–5. Charcoal/crayon and watercolour, 34.9 x 52.7. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£8,050) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2003 (£11,353). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Political Meeting, Greece, see Speakers’ Corner, 1979

Pollarding, 1944–6? Pencil, coloured pencil, charcoal and watercolour, softly squared, 55 x 36.5. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Alwyne Rickerd > Christie’s 7 Nov. 1991 (£3,520) > Thos Agnew & Sons > Christie’s 3 Nov. 1999 (£5,520) > Piccadilly Gallery > ? (2000) > ? > ? (by gift) > Sotheby’s 23 Nov. 2016 (£21,250)

Poor Family, The – study, 1921–3. Pencil, 10.2 x 8.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12684). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Poor Family, The (aka Unemployed), 1921–3. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 41.9. PROVENANCE: Dr H. Caplan in 1965 > Christie’s 15 Mar. 1985 (estimate £12,000–£28,000; unsold) > Leicester Galleries > ? > Christie’s 14 Nov. 2012 (estimate £200,000–£300,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Albemarle Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: Modern Painters, spring 1989; Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 14

Port of London (aka River Scene?), c.1922. Oil on canvas, 53.3 x 74.8. In his memoir Early Years, Roberts describes how, when at school, during a visit to the Tate Gallery he had been impressed by an earlier painting of the Pool of London, Toil, Glitter, Grime and Wealth on a Flowing Tide (1883) by William Lionel Wyllie (1851–1931) (whom Roberts misremembered as Maurice Greiffenhagen). PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T05761, dated c.1920–24). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Newcastle 2004, Tate Britain 2012

Portrait (self-portrait), c.1920. Drawing. PROVENANCE: ex Cornish Collection, presented to Hampstead Library 1928. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Spink & Son 1978

Portrait, 1920–23. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (where not for sale)

Portrait, The (aka The Model?), 1974. Watercolour and pencil, squared. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1974. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 36

Portrait of the Artist, c.1960. Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. (Is this Self-portrait with Pale Green Tie c.1960?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1961

Portrait Head, c.1937. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (45 gns)

Poster for the Exhibition of French Art 1914–1919 (Mansard Gallery, Heal’s), 1919. Poster, 75 x 48. In March 1919 Sacheverell Sitwell visited Modigliani’s studio in Paris and decided to put on an exhibition of French art in London (Sarah Bradford, Sacheverell Sitwell: Splendours and Miseries (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1993), pp. 91–6). Leopold Zborowski, art dealer and friend of Modigliani, was to act as agent. The exhibition was held at the Mansard Gallery in Heal’s in August–September 1919, and included work by Picasso, Modigliani, Leger, Derain and Dufy. In his preface to the catalogue, Arnold Bennett described the exhibition as ‘the first of its kind since the war, and the best of its kind since the celebrated exhibition at the Grafton Galleries many years ago [1910–11]’. William Roberts’s poster design is a vertical composition against a yellow background. A group of stylised figures, viewed from a high perspective, are in an art-gallery context. It is similar in style to the three panels painted for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel in autumn 1919. The 1965 Tate Gallery catalogue notes that the typography was not done by Roberts. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Powder Puff Referee, The, 1956–7. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11.2 x 6.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Powder Puff Referee, The – study, 1956–7. Pencil 17 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Powder Puff Referee, The (with apologies to Mr Jack Solomons and Dr Edith Summerskill) (aka Boxing à la Summerskill), 1956–7. Chalk and watercolour, 47 x 35. This satirical images shows a scantily clad central female referee giving instructions to two boxers before a fight. The boxers look somewhat chastened by the presence of the pretty referee, their heads lowered. The boxers are each supported by tough-looking trainers who hold their robes. In the background a technician carries out a microphone check. Edith Summerskill (1901–80) was educated at King’s College London and trained as a doctor at Charing Cross Hospital. She was one of the founders of the Socialist Health Association, which spearheaded the National Health Service (1948). In 1948 she became Labour MP for West Fulham and later, when her seat was abolished, for Warrington. She served as Minister of National Insurance (1950–51), as a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (1944–58) and as chair of the Labour Party (1954–5). She was a keen promoter of women’s causes, and was also a prominent campaigner against boxing, publishing The Ignoble Art on the subject in 1956. Jack Solomons (1900–1979) was the most notable British boxing promoter of his day, putting on twenty-six world title fights. He frequently clashed with Summerskill over the dangers of the sport. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Manchester (2) 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

T. F. Powys, 1926. Pencil, 31.8 x 20.3. Theodore Francis Powys (1875–1953), was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, the third of eleven children of a clergyman, and a grandchild of two other clergymen. His brothers included the writers John Cowper Powys and Llewelyn Powys. In 1879 his father took up a post in Dorchester, and Theodore was educated there, at Sherborne and then in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. From 1895 he farmed near Sweffling in Suffolk, before in 1901 returning to Dorset to read and write. This drawing, for which Roberts visited Powys’s home in Chaldon Herring in July 1926, was used as a frontispiece both to The New Coterie no. 4 (autumn 1926) and to two stories collected as T. F. Powys, A Strong Girl and The Bride (London: E. Archer, 1926). PROVENANCE: Wyndham T. Vint > ? > Christie’s 23 Mar. 2011 (£1,750) > National Portrait Gallery (NPG 6910). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Perth 1936, Cheltenham 1937, Plymouth 1938, Hull 1956, City of Bradford Art Gallery (date unknown)

Primrose Hill – study (aka Boys' Gym), c.1930 (dated as 1934 in Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 and Hamet Gallery 1971). Pencil and watercolour, 22.9 x 30.0. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (estimate £1,500–£2,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Boys’ Gym: colour study, 10 gns), Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969 (as Primrose Hill), Hamet Gallery 1971 (as Primrose Hill)

Primrose Hill – other studies, see Boy’s Gym, The, c.1930, Playground c.1930 and Rings, The, c.1930

Primrose Hill (aka The Playground), c.1930. Oil on canvas, 105.5 x 132. The subject is the outdoor gymnasium built on Primrose Hill, in north London, in 1847, and still extant. PROVENANCE: Marlborough Fine Art > ? > Ivor Braka > Frank Cohen (2000) > Christie’s 30 June 2016 (£818,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (150 gns; ‘Now, as may be seen in the most excellent painting of “Primrose Hill,” more specifically the boys’ gymnasium on that eminence, Mr. Roberts is working in colour. The mauves and purples, delightful in themselves, enter into the spirit of the spiral movement of the figures round the vertical system of the apparatus and railings. The formal movements and the colour progressions are at one, so that you think of the general colour of the picture and not of its individual colours – though you cannot but admire the judgment with which the blue of the hill is summed up “sforzando” in the boy’s figure at the bottom by the railings’ – The Times, 30 Oct. 1931)

Primrose Hill – study, 1949–50. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 33.5 x 43. PROVENANCE: Lawrences Auctioneers, Crewkerne, 20 Apr. 2007 (estimate £4,000–£6,000) > ? > Bonhams 2 July 2008 (£14,400)

Primrose Hill, 1949–50. Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 8 Nov. 1989 (£19,800) > Isleworth Foundation, Florida, USA. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1950

(verso) Prince Philip – study for Trooping the Colour 1958–9 (also dated 1960 in the Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue, but it seems unlikely that this sketch would have been carried out after the final work had been completed)
(recto) Spring Flowers – study (aka Women with a Bunch of Flowers), c.1959. Pencil, 17.5 x 12
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12663). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Prisoner, The, c.1913. ‘Left the Slade at the age of 18 years [in 1913] and began to paint in the Cubist manner. Works of this period include “The Dancers”, “Religion”, “The Prisoner”’ – Roberts, A Press View at the Tate Gallery. LOST

Prisoner of War, see German Prisoner, The, c.1930

Prisoners, see German Prisoners, c.1916

Problem Picture. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Prodigal Departs, The, see Prodigal Sets Out, The, 1927–8

Prodigal Returns, The, see Prodigal Sets Out, The, 1927–8

Prodigal Sets Out, The – study, 1927–8. Pencil, 19 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Prodigal Sets Out, The (aka The Prodigal Returns), 1927–8 (also dated c.1932, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1969). Pencil and black chalk, squared, 25.4 x 22. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 13

Prodigal Sets Out, The (aka The Prodigal Departs and The Prodigal Son – study), 1927–8. Watercolour, 19 x 15. PROVENANCE: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (gift of Mrs H. V. Evatt 1967). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as The Prodigal Departs, 20 gns), St George’s Gallery 1930, Melbourne 2007, Katoomba 2018

Prodigal Sets Out, The (aka The Prodigal Departs), 1927–8. Oil on canvas. The entry for The Rhine Boat 1927–8 in the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue describes it as ‘One of three paintings inspired by a visit to Germany, the others being “The Prodigal Departs” (which has since been destroyed by the artist) and “The Skittle Alley”’. In August 1927 Roberts travelled to Germany with his brother Michael, the writers H. E. Bates and Rhys Davies, a lawyer and book-collector called Cayford, and the bookseller Charles Lahr, who had published Bates and Davies and commissioned illustrations from Roberts (see Esther Lahr 1925). They sailed from Gravesend to Rotterdam, and then travelled via Cologne, Mannheim, Mainz, Coblenz, Bingen and Kreuznach to Lahr’s birthplace in Wendelsheim, where for days they were plied with food and drink (Dean R. Baldwin, H. E. Bates: A Literary Life (Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1987), p. 72). According to Davies, throughout the trip Roberts ‘seldom stopped reading a pocket New Testament’ (Rhys Davies, Print of a Hare’s Foot: An Autobiographical Beginning (London: Heinemann, 1969), p. 171), and Lahr’s reception in his home village seems to have prompted a comparison with the biblical parable in Luke 15:11–32, in which a young man asks his father for his share of his inheritance in advance, then goes away and dissipates it in prodigal (i.e. wastefully extravagant) living. When he returns home penniless, he is nevertheless welcomed back with feasting and rejoicing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as The Prodigal Departs, 300 gns; ‘As a composition it might be called a perforated cylinder – rather like a very elaborately carved Japanese netsuke – with an intricate movement of form and colour among the nine figures. On the human side it is a harvest festival, all the possible emotions of the scene – pathetic, derisive, impatient, and anxious – being expressed in the different faces and attitudes, while the Prodigal himself, in his little green hat, stares out at far horizons’ – The Times, 18 June 1929), London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (uncatalogued according to The Times, 30 Oct. 1931). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 34. DESTROYED by William Roberts

Prodigal Son, The, see Prodigal Sets Out, The, 1927–8

(recto) Profile of Woman in Jacket Annotated with Colour Notes, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
(verso) Two Women with Colour Notes on Clothes, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Promenade, The – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 11.4 x 19.0. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Promenade, The, c.1970. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971

Prophet, The, see Bathers 1925

(recto) Pub Scene, c.1960. Pencil, on sheet from small notebook
(verso) Pub Scene, 1960
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Pub Scene, c.1970. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11.5 x 7. In the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Jacob Kramer Reassessed’ (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 1984), Sarah Roberts observed that, unlike Kramer (her brother), Roberts ‘was not a pub man; he got his copy from looking through the windows.’ PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Public Library, c.1966. Pencil and watercolour, 11.8 x 17.8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Public Library, date uncertain. Watercolour, 11.5 x 52 (?). PROVENANCE: Sold 1983 (£750)

Public Library, see News, The, 1941

Punt, The (aka The Punters), c.1943. Pencil and watercolour, 17.2 x 22.8. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£4,745) > ? > Christie’s 14 Mar. 2002 (£4,113). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Punters, The (aka The Punt) – study, c.1943. Pencil, 13.5 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Punters, The (aka The Punt) – study, c.1943. Pencil, squared, 15 x 19.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Punters, The (aka The Punt), c.1943. Pencil, squared, 17.5 x 22. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Punters, The (aka The Punt), c.1943. Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Private collection, UK > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2022 (£176,700). REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 2 (as The Punters)

Punting, c.1940. (This could be a study for oil-on-canvas Punting on the Cherwell 1939; however as that picture was also exhibited at the Hamet Gallery in 1973 one would expect a connection to be made in the catalogue if one was a study for the other.) Pencil and watercolour, 18 x 11.4. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 1978 (£260). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Punting (aka The Black Swan) – study (aka Punting Down the River), 1968. Watercolour, body colour and pencil, squared, 15 x 12. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 8 June 1990 (as Punting Down the River, £2,530)

Punting (aka The Black Swan), 1968 (also dated 1969). Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 61.0. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 12 Nov. 1982 (£1,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 21

Punting Down the River, see Punting (aka The Black Swan) – study, 1968

Punting on the Cherwell – study, 1939. Black chalk, 27 x 18.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Punting on the Cherwell – study (aka Group of People in a Punt), 1939. Pencil, 27.3 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12731, as Group of People in a Punt)

Punting on the Cherwell, 1939. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: WR > H. Kemp (1939) > ? > H. L. Gordon > Christie’s 19 May 1972 (£1,100) > Hamet Gallery > ? > Sotheby’s 10 Nov. 1981 (£5,500) > ? > Christie’s 21 Mar. 1996 (£12,650) > ? > Christie’s 6 June 2003 (£47,800) > Jerwood Foundation. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980, Barbican Art Gallery 1984, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 103

Punting Scene. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Pussy-cats (aka The Cats and Stroking the Cat), 1976 (dated). Watercolour and pencil 15.5 x 18. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 3 Dec. 2002. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Pussy-cats, The, 1976. Oil on canvas, 63 x 76.5. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 3 Dec. 2002. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979

Putting Up Horse-lines, 1919 (also dated 1916–18, Hamet Gallery 1971). Pencil, ink and watercolour, squared, 15.9 x 16.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

R.A. Summer Exhibition 1967 – design for a poster, 1967. Pencil, 15.2 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12698). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

R.A. Summer Exhibition 1967 – design for a poster, 1967. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 50.6. PROVENANCE: Royal Academy

Rabbi’s Wife, c.1925. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1925 (£30)

Racecourse Scene, A, see Mounting Horses, c.1922

Raiders, The, see Mahomet’s Ride, c.1968

Railway Station, The (aka Soldiers on a Train) – study for A Station Scene in Wartime, c.1943. Pencil, watercolour, pen and red ink, squared, 12.7 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > ? > Christie’s 5 Mar. 1999 (£2,760) > ? > Offer Waterman (2011) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Woking (1) 2014, Bristol 2015

Rape of a Sabine, The, see Abduction, c.1955

Rape of the Sabine, The, see Rape of the Sabine Women, The – study, 1977

Rape of the Sabine Women, The – study (aka Rape of the Sabines), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 15.2 x 19.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Rape of the Sabines)

Rape of the Sabine Women, The – study (aka The Rape of the Sabine and The Rape of the Sabines), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, squared, 29.5 x 37. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (£1,700) > Geoffrey Beene > Christie’s New York 24 May 1994 (as The Rape of the Sabine, $3,680) > ? > Christie’s 20 June 1995 (as The Rape of the Sabines, £3,220). For the subject matter, see The Rape of the Sabines 1955–6

Rape of the Sabine Women, see Combat – study, 1966

Rape of the Sabines, The – study, 1955. Pencil and watercolour, 50.8 x 34.3. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£450) > F. Manzi > Christie’s 5 Mar. 1999 (£4,140) > ? > Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, 29 Nov. 2017 (£35,392). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1957 (on loan), Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 55

Rape of the Sabines, The, 1955–6. Oil on canvas, 152.3 x 109.3. The rape – i.e. abduction – of the Sabine women was an incident in the legendary history of Rome. Around 750 BC, according to the Roman historian Livy, Rome feared that the status it had achieved could not be sustained as it had insufficient womanfolk to rear a new generation. When appeals to its neighbours for intermarriage failed, the Romans invited neighbouring tribes to solemn games held in honour of the god Neptune. ‘Many people … gathered for the festival, especially those who lived nearest, the inhabitants of Caenina, Crustumium, and Antemnae. The Sabines, too, came with all their people, including their children and wives. They were hospitably entertained in every house, and when they had looked at the site of the City, its walls, and its numerous buildings, they marvelled that Rome had so rapidly grown great. When the time came for the show, and people’s thoughts and eyes were busy with it, the preconcerted attack began. At a given signal the young Romans darted this way and that, to seize and carry off the maidens. In most cases these were taken by the men in whose path they chanced to be. Some, of exceptional beauty, had been marked out for the chief senators, and were carried off to their houses by plebeians to whom the office had been entrusted … The sports broke up in a panic, and the parents of the maidens fled sorrowing’ (Ab Urbe Condita I.9, tr. Benjamin Oliver Foster, 1919). Subsequently, the abducted women supposedly became reconciled to their situation. Roberts sets the incident in the twentieth century, and seems to envisage it taking place on the Sabines’ own territory. Notes by John Roberts say that the woman brandishing a ladle was based on the woman, known as ‘Old Mother Dry Rot’ by William Roberts, who had occupied part of the artist’s house in St Mark’s Crescent when the Roberts family first moved there in 1946, and who at one point had to be bound over at Albany Street police station to keep the peace after attacking Sarah Roberts with a soup ladle. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£1,500) > C. H. Administration Ltd > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£7,000) > private collection (USA) > Bonhams 18 Nov. 2015 (£122,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1956, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Southampton 1967 (loan), Worthing 1972, Belgrave Gallery 1985. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 54

Rape of the Sabines, The, c.1960. Pencil, squared and titled, 19 x 12.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Rape of the Sabines, The, see Combat – study, 1966 and Rape of the Sabine Women, The – study, 1977

Rapins, Les, 1946–9. Drawing. The title translates as ‘The Art Students’ or ‘The Daubers’. A 1909 etching entitled Les Rapins by the French impressionist Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850–1924) shows a group of artists socialising in a studio while surrounded by canvases; it is possible that Roberts’s drawing has similar content, or it may relate to The Something Road Group, usually dated to c.1956. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 20 gns)

Reading the Newspaper, see Flower Arrangement, The, 1944

Reading of Poetry, A (aka Woman Reading), 1965 (also dated 1964 in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976)). Oil on canvas, 60 x 50. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Miss Elizabeth Watt > Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (1989). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Edinburgh 1989. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 11

Reception at the London Group, A, 1948–9. Pencil, 13 x 18.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12634). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Reception at the London Group, A, see London Group Gives a Reception, The, 1948–9

Recital, The – study, c.1944–5. Pencil, squared, 16.2 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Recital, The (aka The Orchestra), c.1944–5. Watercolour and pencil, 15.5 x 25.7. PROVENANCE: WR > Mrs Adele Kramer (Sarah Roberts’s guitar teacher – no relation; probably given in the 1950s in payment for lessons) > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1990 (as The Orchestra and dated c.1968; £4,620). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (as The Orchestra)

Recital, The (aka Aria), c.1944–5. Watercolour, pencil and ink, 33 x 52. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (estimate £2,000–£3,000) > ? > Christie’s 13 Nov. 1987 (£4,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945 (as Aria – assumed from the content and the style appropriate to this date to be the work illustrated), Worthing 1972

Reclining Couple Playing a Board Game, date uncertain. Black chalk, 12.7 x 14.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Reclining Couple. Two vignettes, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Recorder Player, The (aka The Artist’s Son Playing the Flute, Head of a Boy and Portrait of Artists’ Son), 1935–6. Oil on canvas, 41 x 31. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Jan. 1952, £22 10s.) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£10,625) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Morecambe and Heysham 1939, Oxford 1940, Redfern Gallery 1942, Leicester Galleries (3) 1952, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Woking 2011, Aberystwyth 2016

Recorder Player, The, see Reed-pipe, The, 1971

Recorder Players – study for a detail from The Gutter, 1934–5. Pencil, 18.5 x 27. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Recorder Players, 1943. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Mrs Robin Brook (née Helen Knewstub)

Recorder Players, 1943. Oil on canvas, 19 x 24. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by A. E. Hendrickson. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 20 (where dated 1943)

Red Cross Dressing Station, Advanced Post, 1918. Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour and brown chalk, 39.8 x 28.3. PROVENANCE: Christopher Perkins > ? > Mrs J. B. Laden > British Museum (bought from the Fine Arts Society, 1983)

Red Slippers, see Something Road Group, The, c.1956

Red Turban, The (Sarah), 1921. Oil on canvas, 103 x 82.2. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society (1922) > Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (1928). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Grosvenor House 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Newcastle 2004, York 2010, Gorssel 2019

Reed-pipe, The (aka Sarah with a Bamboo Pipe; also mistitled as Recorder Player in Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976)), 1971. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. ‘For many years Sarah played the reed pipe, and attended meetings’ – John David Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 catalogue, re The Pipers 1977. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1971, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 28

Reflections – study, 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 17.5 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Reflections, 1973. Watercolour, 53.3 x 30.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1974

Reflections (Fishing), date uncertain. Inscribed ‘Reflections’. Pencil, 12 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Regent’s Park Canal, The Fishing Contest, see Canal, The, 1964–5

Regrets, c.1926. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (2) 1926 (£50. ‘For [Roberts], Cubist experiments have proved a wholesome discipline which is responsible for the firmness and strong plastic sense of his admirable portrait study “Regrets”’ – P. G. Konody, ‘Art and Artists: The London Group’, The Observer, 6 June 1926. ‘[T]here even seems to be a repentant return to mid-Victorian sentimentality of Sant’s “Soul's Awakening” order. It is indicated by a picture called “Regrets”: this seems to represent a "Soul's repentance," and was painted by – William Roberts of all people’ – Apollo, July–December 1926.)

Rehearsal, The, c.1920. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mansard Gallery 1921 (‘[T]here is only one purely Cubist picture in the whole of the exhibition. Why there should be even that, and why its painter – William Roberts – should call it “The Rehearsal” É can only be explained by the Committee of the Friday Club and by the artist himself’ – Westminster Gazette, 8 Apr. 1921)

Rehearsal, The – study for Chamber Music, c.1937 (signed). Watercolour over pencil heightened with white, 25 x 30. PROVENANCE: Sir Hugh Walpole > Rev. J. A. D. Wallace > ? > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers 25 Nov. 2008 (£5,800 net) > private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns), Leicester Galleries (1) 1945

Rejected? No, Accepted! (aka Accepted), c.1938 (also dated 1920, Worthing Art Gallery 1972). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 27.3 x 33.7. A satire in response to the rejection of Wyndham Lewis’s portrait of T. S. Eliot by the Royal Academy hanging committee in 1938. Augustus John resigned from the RA in support of Lewis. ‘WR proposes a happier state of affairs in which John paints a portrait of Lewis and submits it to a hanging committee of Wyndham Lewises’ – John Roberts, note in the Tate archive. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 13 Nov. 1985 (£5,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£4,950). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Worthing 1972, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Religion, 1913–14. Watercolour, 75.6 x 55.9. This was one of four works selected by Ezra Pound in London from the Doré Gallery Vorticist exhibition in 1915 for John Quinn, the American art collector, and transported to New York in 1916 and exhibited in the Vorticist exhibition at the Penguin Club in New York in 1917. It was purchased by John Quinn for £6 at the time of the exhibition, and became part of his collection. Quinn died in 1924, and his collection was sold in 1927 (Vivien Greene, ‘Ezra Pound and John Quinn: The Penguin Club Exhibition 1917’, in The Vorticists (London: Tate, 2011)). David Sylvester noted similarities between this work and Franz Marc’s Landscape with Animals 1913 (New Statesman, 14 Dec. 1957). An exhibition of ‘Modern German Art’ held at the Twenty-One Gallery in London in February 1914 included work by Marc, and was later reviewed by Wyndham Lewis in Blast No. 1 (p. 136). PROVENANCE: WR > John Quinn > American Art Association Inc. 11 Feb. 1927 ($20, with The Dancers 1913–14) > R. B. Muller. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Rebel Art Centre 1914, Doré Gallery 1915, New York 1917, Hayward Gallery 1974 (photograph of). REPRODUCED: Blast No. 1 (illust. xiv, between pp. 96 and 97); Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, pl. 4. LOST

Religious Subject, see Decapitations, c.1912

Reluctant Shepherd, A – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 25.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 50)

Reluctant Shepherd, A, 1925–6 (two figures standing in sand and carrying a third). Pen and ink, 28 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘The shepherd lad held on steadily, driving his goats with shrill cries up our hill for the better pasture on the western side. We sent two Juheina down behind a ridge beyond sight of the enemy, and they ran from each side and caught him … Fauzan had great ado to make him quiet, and then questioned him about his Turkish masters. But all his thoughts were for the flock: his eyes followed them miserably while the tears made edged and crooked tracks down his dirty face’ (ch. 34). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 51). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 110

Request Bus Stop, The, see Bus Stop, 1957

Request Bus Stop, The, see Request Stop, The – study, 1957

Request Stop, The – study (aka The Request Bus Stop), 1957 (dated as 1955 Reading 1983). Pencil, 18.5 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12723, as Group of People Standing on a Corner). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983. Cf. Bus Stop 1957

Request Stop, The (aka Bus Queue), 1957 (signed and dated). Black chalk and watercolour, 48.3 x 33.0. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 5 July 1972 (£500) > ? > Sotheby’s 19 June 1974 (as Request Stop, £550) > Sotheby’s 20 July 1988 (as Bus Stop, estimate £3,000–£4,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 4, where incorrectly dated as c.1955 (though ‘1957’ is visible on the reproduction) and titled Bus Queue. Cf. Bus Stop 1948–9 and Bus Stop 1957

Researchers – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 19.0 x 14.0. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Researchers, 1970 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 45 x 33.5. PROVENANCE: Salander–O’Reilly Galleries, New York > ? > Christie’s 16 July 2008 (£8,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Restaurant, The – study, 1929. Pencil, squared, 18 x 8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Restaurant, The – another study, see Discussion, The 1929

Restaurant, The (aka Discussion in a Café, Café Scene and Café-bar), 1929. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: London Artists’ Association > Wilfrid Evill (Nov. 1931, 30 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 15 June 2011 (£373,250) > Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (30 gns), Hamburg 1932 (as Café), Redfern Gallery 1942, Leicester Galleries (3) 1952, Eastbourne 1953, Stockport 1954, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Chichester 2007, Fortnum & Mason 2016. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 78

Resurrection, The (Slade School Sketch Club subject), 1912 (dated). Pencil, pen and ink, 30.5 x 30.5. Richard Cork has pointed out a similarity between this composition and Michelangelo’s The Resurrection in the Royal Library at Windsor, but notes that ‘by 1912 … the seeds of abstraction had already been planted in [Roberts’s] work. A lingering debt to the Pre-Raphaelites is evident in the drooping Burne-Jones figure kneeling on the left … But … Roberts possessed an equally apparent urge to simplify his figures into massive, schematic units … Christ’s figure has become a series of right-angles, shooting up out of the coffin until his outstretched arms cut through the geometric arc of the rainbow. And the coffin lid, flying back through the air away from the impact of this supernatural explosion, carries the abstract force of the vocabulary Roberts was to employ in his Vorticist work’ (Richard Cork, David Bomberg (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987), p. 64). Although Cork identifies the resurrected figure with Christ, the central cross in the background seems to have someone hanging on the far side of it, and possibly someone kneeling at its foot. The picture may therefore refer to Matthew 27: 45–52: ‘Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? … Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.’ PROVENANCE: St John Hutchinson > Leicester Galleries > Wilfrid Evill (Dec. 1945, 15 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > private collection, London (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1914, Grosvenor House 1923, University College 1927, Vienna 1927 (as Zeichnung), Leicester Galleries 1947, Tate Gallery 1952, Brighton Art Gallery 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 14

Return of Ulysses, The – study, c.1913. Pen and chalk, 30.5 x 46. PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T01561, purchased 1972). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Bristol 1991, Tate Britain 2012

Return of Ulysses, The – study (aka Bacchanal), 1913. Chalk and watercolour, 30.5 x 45.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from artist c.1913 > Sotheby’s 14 July 1965 (as Bacchanal, £140) > Lord’s Gallery > Tate Gallery (T00878, bought 1966). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974, Venice 1986, Newcastle 2004, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Pontus Hulten, Futurismo e Futurismi (New York: Abbeville, 1986)

Return of Ulysses, The, c.1913. Oil on canvas, 30 x 45. In Homer’s Odyssey, after a difficult ten-year journey back from the Trojan War the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses in the Latin form) eventually arrives disguised as a beggar at his home of Ithica, where his faithful wife, Penelope, is besieged by unruly suitors, with ‘strangers grossly maltreated, and men dragging the women servants about the house in an unseemly way, wine drawn recklessly, and bread wasted all to no purpose’ (Book 16, ll. 108–11, tr. Samuel Butler, 1900). He reveals himself to his son, Telemachus (or Telemakhos), and together they plot the destruction of the suitors at a banquet in the palace. ‘[The suitors] went inside and laid their cloaks on the benches and seats. They sacrificed the sheep, goats, pigs, and the heifer, and when the inward meats were cooked they served them round … Telemakhos deliberately made Odysseus sit in the part of the room that was paved with stone; he gave him a shabby-looking seat at a little table to himself, and had his portion of the inward meats brought to him, with his wine in a gold cup’ (ibid., Book 20, ll. 248–61). Odysseus alone succeeds in the feat of archery that Penelope sets to determine whom she will give in to, and then (with the help of his son and two faithful servants) slays the suitors and reveals himself to his wife. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1953) > Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (1954). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1913 (‘a clever invention in the Cubist convention, which has been handled with more dynamic force by Mr. Wyndham Lewis’ – The Times, 1 Dec. 1913), Chenil Galleries 1923, Whitechapel Gallery 1929, M. Knoedler & Co. 1930, Venice 1932 (as Ritorno di Ulisse), Tate Gallery 1952, Leicester Galleries (2) 1953, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974, Sheffield 1975, Liverpool 1976, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Newcastle 2004, Ghent 2007, Rotterdam 2011. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 21

Revolt, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 31 x 24.5. Unused tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, annotated by Roberts, ‘Page 47 ‘ and ‘Not used’. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 28). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988

Revolt in the Desert, The –study, 1952. Pencil, framed with blue chalk, 20.3 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12642). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Revolt in the Desert, The – study, 1952. Pencil and watercolour, 40 x 24. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£7,213). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Revolt in the Desert, The, 1952. Oil on canvas, 240 x 145. T. E. Lawrence with a party of Arabs – a return to subject matter of the 1920s associated with Lawrence’s account, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), of his role in the 1916–18 Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. ‘It was notoriety to be the only clean-shaven one, and I doubled it by wearing always the suspect pure silk, of the whitest (at least outside), with a gold and crimson Meccan head-rope, and gold dagger. By so dressing I staked a claim which Feisal’s public consideration of me confirmed’ – Seven Pillars of Wisdom, ch. 99. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper (£250, 1952) > Southampton City Art Gallery (£750, 1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1952, Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1988, Newcastle 2004, Imperial War Museum 2005. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 111

Rhine Boat, The – study, 1927–8 (dated c.1930 in Anthony d’Offay exhibitions). Pencil and watercolour, 25.4 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: BNY Mellon Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (8 gns), Hull 1932 (8 gns; ‘complex and a little confusing’ – Hull Daily Mail, 31 Mar. 1932), Lefevre Gallery 1938 (10 gns), Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1983, Florida 2011

Rhine Boat, The, 1927–8. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40. According to the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, this picture was ‘inspired by a visit to Germany’– see The Prodigal Sets Out 1927–8. Among WR’s party on this visit was the writer H. E. Bates, whose 1932 story ‘A German Idyll’, based on this trip, opens on ‘a white river steamer … travelling smoothly up the Rhine in the heat of an August afternoon’, with the protagonist having a pair of binoculars thrust into his hand to view the Lorelei rock opposite. PROVENANCE: Miss Elizabeth Watt from London Artists’ Association (31 gns) > Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (1961). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (50 gns), Sheffield 1929 (priced at £53), Dundee 1931, Ottawa 1932, London Artists’ Association (1) 1933, Northampton 1946, Tate Gallery 1965, Edinburgh 1989, Auckland 2012, Gorssel 2019. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 71

Rhododendron, The (portrait of Sarah Roberts), 1947–8. Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 19 May 1989 > Sotheby’s 26 Nov. 1997 (£4,025) > Robert Devereux > Sotheby’s 4 Nov. 2010 (£10,000) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Woking 2011, Aberystwyth 2016. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 17

Paul Rimmer – Friend of John, see Schoolboy, The, 1930

Ring of Roses, suggest 1916–17 (also dated c.1913). Pencil, ink, watercolour and wash, signed and inscribed with title, 35 x 24. PROVENANCE: T. T. Andreae > Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£1,980). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, Parkin Gallery 1976

Rings, The – study for Primrose Hill, c.1930. Black chalk, 21.0 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Riot, The, 1920. Drawing. Possibly this is A Demonstration c.1919–20. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Independent Gallery 1921

Ritual Bath (aka The Tub) – study, c.1947. Pencil, squared, 19 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Ritual Bath (aka The Tub), c.1947. Pencil and watercolour, 18.3 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: The Roberts family (1985). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Ritual Bath (aka The Bath or The Tub), c.1947 (signed, and inscribed bottom right ‘The Bath’). Pen and black ink, pencil and watercolour, squared, 37.5 x 25. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£2,300) > ? > Sotheby’s 10 June 1998 (£4,830). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972

River, The – study, 1942. Watercolour. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper (1965)

River, The, see Pastures, The, 1942

River Painting – sketch for, c.1919. Pencil, 8.8 x 14.0 (verso: colour notes). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12693). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Tate Britain 2012. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 19

River Picnic, see Bathers, The, 1942–3

River Scene, c.1922? Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923. Cf. Port of London c.1922?

River Scene, see Port of London, c.1922

Road Up. Vignette, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10.6 x 10. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

John Roberts, see John, 1938

Ted Roberts (father of William Roberts), c.1912–13. Pencil drawing on the inside of a greetings card, 8.4 x 12.1, sent from Ted Roberts to his sister, Kate, labelled ‘A drawing by Paddy’. (William Roberts’s middle name was Patrick, and his parents called him Paddy.) PROVENANCE: Tony Baker (Kate’s grandson)

Rosières Valley, 1918. Inscribed ‘Signallers Laying a Wire’ and ‘Rosiéres [sic] Valley 1918’. Ink and watercolour, 15.8 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1886). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Edinburgh 1974, Madrid 2008

Roundabout, The, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, 15.5 x 20.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Roundabout, 1977. Watercolour, 29.8 x 38.1. PROVENANCE: Blond Fine Art. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Routiers, Les – study, 1931. Pencil, 25.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Routiers, Les, 1931. Oil on canvas, 101 x 76.3. In August 1940, visitors to the then Belfast Municipal Art Gallery were given questionnaires inviting them to say which painting they liked best and which they liked least, with reasons, and asking for their views on three paintings in particular, one of which was WR’s Les Routiers. The Belfast Telegraph of 20 September 1940 reported that ‘The picture that came in for the greatest amount of criticism and which headed the poll as far as unpopularity is concerned was “Les Routiers,” by William Roberts É It was described as “ghastly,” “repugnant,” “a nightmare,” “foolish,” “vulgar,” “a vision of chocolate-box robots in Laocoon evolutions,” “horrible,” “frightful” and “childish.” One woman thought that the only valuable thing about it was the frame, and another said she could see no merit in it as a work of art but would willingly take it home “to amuse the children.”’ PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > Ulster Museum, Belfast (1933). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (65 gns), Venice 1932 (as Ciclisti), British Council 1939, Tate Gallery 1965, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Munich 2001, Nottingham 2006. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 83

Rufus, see Woman Playing with a Cat 1943–4

Rush Hour – study, 1971 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 40 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > ? (1972) > Christie’s 5 Mar. 1999 (£6,325). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Rush Hour, 1971. Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 96.5. PROVENANCE: Simon Keswick. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980, Guildhall Art Gallery 1983, Kuala Lumpur 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 131

Rush Hour in the Tube, c.1970. Drawing, 12 x 15.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983. Cf. The Underground

Rush Hour in the Tube, see Underground, The, 1970

Russe, La, c.1958. Perhaps a portrait of Sarah Roberts. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Russian Dancers, 1925– 6. Red chalk,16.5 x 11.5 (annotated by WR ‘413’). Unused study for a tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’Ali saw me fall, and thinking that I was hard hit, ran out, with Turki and about twenty men of his servants and the Beni Sakhr, to help me … Their full white cotton drawers drawn in, bell-like, round their slender waists and ankles; their hairless brown bodies; and the love-locks plaited tightly over each temple in long horns, made them look like Russian dancers’ (ch. 78). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 29 (part))

Rustic Scene, A, see Country Scene, 1922

Sacrifice in the Rain, A, suggest 1916–17 (dated as 1919; also dated c.1913 Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 and 1993; Christie’s (1986) dated c.1920, but Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue states: label on mount written by Michael Gordon ‘bought from Will Roberts when he went to war in 1915–17, by my father Stephen Gordon’; dated c.1930 Worthing 1972). Pen, brush, brown wash and pencil, 35 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Michael Gordon > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 15 Nov. 1978 (£280) > Mrs Alexander Stevenson 1985 > Christie’s 7 Mar. 1986 > ? > Bonhams 29 Nov. 2005 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Gillian Jason Gallery > private collection, Leicestershire (2009). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1958, Worthing 1972, Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (priced at £1,400), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (priced at £3,000)

Sailing Ship, The, 1972 (signed and dated). Pencil, 18.7 x 13.7. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Sailor’s Farewell, date unknown – suggest 1943–4. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 18.7 x 14. (Is this related to Farewell 1943–4?) PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (estimate £2,500–£3,500) > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£1,350) > Christie’s 1 Mar. 2006 (£3,360). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. The Sailor’s Return 1948

Sailor’s Return, The – study, 1948. Pencil, crayon and watercolour, squared, 15.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Monty and Barbie Passes (Nov. 1973) > ? (by descent) > Christie’s 29 Sept. 2020 (£5,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Sailor’s Return, The, 1948. Oil on canvas, 65 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > A. E. Hendrickson > Sotheby’s 22 Nov. 1972 (£1,600) > J. R. Capstick-Dale. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1949, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue

St Christopher, 1923 (signed and dated in ballpoint). Black and red chalk on buff paper, 24.5 x 15. ‘St Christopher is presented from behind tenderly holding the Christ Child, who is facing the Saint, in his arms, to create an image of great emotional force’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985

St George and the Dragon – study, 1915. Pencil, 24.5 x 19. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 1968 > private collection, London, until 1987. ‘William Roberts’s study for his “St. George and the Dragon” … is the epitome of Vorticist impatience with old-fashioned English ways. Drawn for the St. George’s Day issue of a mass-market London evening newspaper [the Evening News], it shows – in the words of Richard Cork, the historian of Vorticism – “a resolutely streamlined saint, an impersonal robot whose figure merges with the paraphernalia of 20th-century civilization”’ – John Russell, ‘When Artistic Rebels Set England Aglow’, New York Times, 15 Nov. 1987. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 1968 (£400) > ? > Anthony d’Offay > private collection (Aug. 1989) > Christie’s 21 Mar. 2023 (£239,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1969, Hayward Gallery 1974, New York 1977, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1982, New Haven 1983, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1986, Venice 1986, New York 1987, Durham, NC, 2010. REPRODUCED: William Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs

St George and the Dragon, 1915 (pub. Evening News (London), 23 Apr. 1915). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974 (photo ‘facsimile of the lost line drawing (perhaps) by Roberts himself’ – Richard Cork). REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth; Williams, William Roberts, p. 29. LOST

Salads for All Seasons, c.1945 – a cover design for a publication of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, using the drawing Large Family at Table. Other LHC cover designs by Roberts were Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health (c.1953), Good Food for Growing Children (c.1948), A Simple Guide to Heathy Food (c.1953) and Towards Better Health (c.1953). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. The Kitchen – study (aka Some Recipes), 1942–5

Saloon Bar, c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 34.3 x 55.3. PROVENANCE: Mrs Sorocold (1945) > private collection (France) > Christie’s 27 June 2017 (£106,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Salute, The, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Salute’. Red Conté crayon, 13.7 x 9.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Salute, The (aka The Ex-serviceman), c.1962. Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 49.5. The Tate Gallery’s online catalogue entry for Roberts’s Trooping the Colour 1958–9 notes that ‘Roberts’s painting “The Salute” … is a self-portrait in which Roberts associates his military service with his work as a painter. Inscribed “The Ex-service Man” by Roberts on a label on the reverse, it shows him standing in front of a blank, stretched canvas, saluting. He wears a cap, and pinned on his jacket are the Allied Victory Medal 1914–19 and the British War Medal 1914–18, both of which were awarded to Roberts and still in his possession at his death.’ Roberts appears to be saluting with the wrong hand, and the image of George V on his War Medal is reversed, because he seems to have decided not to correct his image as seen in a mirror while painting this picture. PROVENANCE: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (A. M. and A. R. Ragless Bequest Fund, 1964). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1962 (as The Ex-serviceman), Royal Academy 1963, Melbourne 2007

Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle – study, 1934. Pencil, 21.8 x 16.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (9 gns), Dulwich 1985 (as Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle II)

Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle – study, 1934. Gouache, 27.9 x 19.1. PROVENANCE: Private collection, UK > Bonhams 22 June 2022 (£57,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns)

Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle, 1934 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 33.3. ‘Sam Rabin [1903–91], a painter and sculptor trained at the Slade School, has always been interested in boxing and wrestling and at one time represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games. William Roberts first knew him as an artist, then met him again later on when he went to watch all-in wrestling matches. Sam Rabin had an exhibition of paintings at the Leicester Galleries in 1960, mainly boxing subjects’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 16. He appears as the champion wrestler in Alexander Korda’s film The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and as the Jewish prize-fighter, Mendoza, in Harold Young’s The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). Black Eagle was the wrestling name of (Wilfred) Robert Adams (c.1900–1965). Adams was born in Georgetown, British Guiana. Having trained as a teacher, after arriving in Britain in the 1920s he was forced to earn a living in low-paid jobs, such as labouring, before a sports promoter encouraged him to become a professional wrestler. As the Black Eagle, he became heavyweight champion of the British Empire. In 1931 he was a founder member of Dr Harold Moody’s League of Coloured Peoples. He had produced and acted in amateur stage productions in British Guiana, and in 1934 he began appearing as a supporting player in films. In 1938 he starred in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones at Cambridge’s Arts Theatre, and repeated the role for the BBC – he had earlier become the first black actor to appear on British television. He later returned to British Guiana, becoming headmaster of a school and also working in the government’s information department. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has entries on both men. The WrestlingClassics website lists several fights involving either Rabin or Black Eagle in London in 1934, but any record of a London fight between the two of them around that date has proved elusive. It is therefore possible that Roberts imagined the scene shown in the painting after having seen each of them fighting other opponents and also fights involving neither of them – see Wrestling Scene 1934. PROVENANCE: Stephen Tennant > Sir Edward Marsh > Contemporary Art Society (1953) > National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1954). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Bath 1935, Leeds 1938, CEMA tour 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Melbourne 2007. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 42

Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle I, see Wrestling Scene, 1934

Sancho Panza, see Don Quixote, 1970

Sarah, 1922. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: S. E. Thornton > Contemporary Art Society (1926) > Manchester City Art Galleries (1931). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, New Chenil Galleries (1) 1926, Leeds 1928 (?), Manchester 1930, Arts Council 1945, Arts Council 1951, Arts Council 1955, Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 15

Sarah (aka Girl Standing with Arms Folded – Sarah standing, smoking), 1922. Watercolour, 45 x 33.5. PROVENANCE: Private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1922, Parkin Gallery 1976, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 14

Sarah, 1925. Pencil on red paper, 31.3 x 23.8. PROVENANCE: Arthur Crossland > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 1939, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Sarah, c.1925. Red chalk, 29.5 x 23.2. PROVENANCE: Arthur Crossland > Christie’s 3 Feb. 1956 > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 1939, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Cambridge 1985

Sarah (aka A Woman), 1927. Oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8. PROVENANCE: Mrs Essil Elmslie Rutherston > Manchester City Art Galleries (gift, 1928). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leeds 1928 (?), Stoke-on-Trent 1931, Tate Gallery 1965, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987

Sarah (aka Portrait of a Woman Wearing Ear-rings), c.1934. Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Victoria Kingsley > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) and (2) 1935, Mayor Gallery 1935, Tate Gallery 1965

Sarah, c.1935. Drawing, 37 x 27. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Sarah, 1936–7. Pencil, 30.5 x 24.7. ‘The only late portrait drawing of Sarah, and in the same format that Roberts established for the many drawings of himself’ – National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1984

Sarah, 1938. Oil on canvas, 41 x 31. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Miss Victoria Kingsley. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Sarah, see Girl in Mauve Hat, 1923

Sarah, see Gitana, La, 1948–9

Sarah, see Gypsy, The, 1948

Sarah, see Thoughts, 1929

Sarah, the Artist’s Wife, 1927. Red chalk, squared, 37.5 x 28.2. The pose is the same as that in Sarah (aka A Woman) 1927. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 27 June 2017 (£7,500)

Sarah, the Artist’s Wife, Portrait of, see Femme Tragique, La, c.1925

Sarah with a Bamboo Pipe, see Reed-pipe, The, 1971

Sarah with Bent Leg, 1924 (signed and dated). Inscribed ‘Sarah’. Black chalk, 34.5 x 20.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Sarah with Ear-ring, c.1938. Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984

Sarah in a Gold Lamé Hat, c.1932. (‘The very “1930s” hat was made for Sarah by Olive Carr, wife of the painter Henry Carr RA (1894–1970) with whom the Roberts family was friendly’ – National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: ? Anthony d’Offay Gallery, National Portrait Gallery 1984

Sarah in a Green Hat, see Toque, The, 1939

Sarah with a Guitar, see Flamenco, 1960

Sarah with Guitar (aka The Banjo, Chenil Galleries 1923) – a study for Jewish Melody, 1920–21. Pencil, 53.5 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (estimate £5,000–£6,000) > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (estimate £2,000–£3,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (no. 33, £10), Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Sarah with Guitar, see Girl Playing Guitar, c.1943

Sarah with Headscarf, c.1935. Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 33.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Albemarle Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue, back cover

Sarah with Her Hair in Ribbons, see Gitana, La, 1948–9

Sarah with Necklace, c.1976–8. Oil on canvas, 47 x 33. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Sarah with Pigeon (aka The Pigeon), c.1958. Oil on canvas, 50.7 x 41.6. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 14 Dec. 1973 (£750) > ? > Samantha Frank. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 9

Sarah, Portrait of, 1925–9. Oil on canvas, 45 x 39.6. This may be the portrait of Sarah ‘in a suede turban’ which, according to notes left by John David Roberts, was given to a surgeon at the London Hospital named Milne in payment for his operating on John (b. June 1919) during a protracted stay in hospital after he was dropped and seriously injured at the age of 4. PROVENANCE: Robert Milne (?) > ? > private collection, UK (by descent) > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2023 (estimate £10,000–£15,000; unsold)

Sarah Pregnant (aka Study (Chenil Galleries 1923) and Woman Standing (Tate Gallery 1965)), pre-June 1919. Pencil and brown ink, 50.5 x 22. PROVENANCE: Diana Gurney. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Tate Gallery 1965, Cambridge 1985

Sarah with Scarf, c.1960. Oil on canvas, 51.5 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Sarah in a Shawl, c.1934. Pencil, 7.5 x 6.8
(
recto) Family, The (aka The Peasants) – study, 1934. Pencil, 18 x 15.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Sarah with a Silk Scarf, c.1965. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984

Sarah with Stiff Collar, c.1932. Pencil, 36.5 x 26. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Sarah in a Wicker Chair, 1924 (signed and dated in ballpoint). Red and blue chalks, 31.5 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Cambridge 1985

Sarah in Yellow and Green, c.1940. Oil on canvas, 41 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Saturday Night – study, c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 18.7 x 15. PROVENANCE: Private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980

Saturday Night (aka At the Local), c.1970. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 61. In the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Jacob Kramer Reassessed’ (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 1984), Sarah Roberts observed that, unlike Kramer (her brother), Roberts ‘was not a pub man; he got his copy from looking through the windows.’ PROVENANCE: WR > ? > Sotheby’s 4 July 2001 (£23,500) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007, Woking 2011, Royal College of General Practitioners 2016, Hastings 2016. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 4

Saving the Cat, c.1936. Charcoal, 24 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Sawing Logs – study, 1930 (dated c.1933 in Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969. Pencil and watercolour, 22.9 x 30.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (8 gns), Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Sawing Logs, see Sawing Wood, 1930

Sawing Logs, 1967 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 32 x 39.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. Cf. Sawing Wood 1930

Sawing Wood – study, 1930. Pencil, 10.8 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12631). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Sawing Wood (aka Sawing Logs) – study, 1930 (also dated 1928 on Manchester City Art Galleries website). Pen and black ink, pencil and red chalk, 22.5 x 27.5. PROVENANCE: Thomas Balston > Manchester City Art Galleries (1950)

Sawing Wood, 1930. Oil on canvas, 48 x 63. PROVENANCE: London Artists’ Association > Ulster Museum, Belfast. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association 1930, British Council 1939, Geneva 1957, Portugal 1962, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Studio 133 (1947), p. 17 (colour)

Sawyers, The, see Tree Felling, c.1944

Scaling a Wall, date uncertain. Red chalk, 20.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Scarlet Robe, The, see Crucifixion, The, c.1922

(recto) Scene in a Restaurant, c.1930. Pencil, 24 x 17.5
(verso) Ballet Dancer, c.1930. Pencil, 22 x 15
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Scene on the Seashore, see Family at the Seaside, c.1926

Schoolboy, The, 1930. Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 33. The catalogue of the 2008 Sotheby’s sale stated that this is a portrait of the artist’s son, John, and reproduced a photograph from 1984 of John Roberts posing with the picture as if in confirmation; but the sitter looks quite unlike John Roberts as depicted in John c.1925, Portrait of a Boy c.1929 and John c.1932. Also, the badge on his cap is not that of St Marylebone Grammar School, which John attended from the autumn of 1930. PROVENANCE: Sir David Scott (bought at the LAA in 1931 for 18 gns) > Sotheby’s 19 Nov. 2008 (£14,375) > ? > Piano Nobile > ?. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (18 gns), Kettering Art Gallery 1959

Schoolboy, The (aka Paul RimmerFriend of John), 1930. Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 33. The Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue stated that The Schoolboy (no. 42) belonged to the artist and had been exhibited as The Schoolboy (no. 4) in London Artists Association (3) 1931 and as Boy in a Blue Jersey (no. 16) in Redfern Gallery 1942. However, the LAA picture had been bought by Sir David Scott in 1931, and Portrait of a Boy c.1929 seems a much better fit for Boy in a Blue Jersey, so there appears to have been some confusion. The Reading 1983 catalogue identified Paul Rimmer (no. 3) shown then as no. 42 from Tate 1965, and it has been assumed that this was correct and that the picture remained with the family after that and is this, the only portrait of a youth who is not obviously John Roberts that was owned by John when he died in 1995. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Paul, 18 gns; ‘in its incisive drawing of the features, recalls Botticelli’s “A Young Man” in the National Gallery’ – The Times, 30 Oct. 1931), Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983

Schoolboy, Portrait of a, c.1930. Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33. PROVENANCE: Christie’s, South Kensington, 15 July 2009 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Robert Kime Ltd > private collection, London

Schoolboy with Braces, Portrait of a, c.1930. Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 33. PROVENANCE: Christie’s, South Kensington, 15 July 2009 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Robert Kime Ltd > private collection, London

Scouting – study, 1925–6. Red chalk and pencil, 28 x 19.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 9)

Scouting, 1925–6 (figure with rifle watching camel caravan). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 8). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 207

Scything, see Couple Harvesting, c.1953

Sea Bathers, see Sun-bathing 1931

Sea Frolic, 1923. Drawing. It is likely that Sea Frolic was the title under which the drawing later known as The Bathers and inscribed ‘Bathers’ was first exhibited. This type of name change is not unprecedented in Roberts’s work: for example, the drawing exhibited as The Connoisseur in the 1923 Chenil Gallery exhibition is inscribed ‘The Picture Dealer’. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Sea Shore, date uncertain. Drawing, 13.5 x 9.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Seagulls, The, see Feeding the Seagulls, 1974

Searching and Sweeping, 1919. Pencil, pen and black ink and grey wash, squared, 16.5 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Ms S. M. Kemp (1973) > Christie’s 7 June 2001 (£1,880). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated 1916 –18), Manchester (1) 1972?

Searching and Sweeping, 1919 (signed and dated). Pen, charcoal and watercolour, 61.0 x 48.3. ‘“Fritz’s” artillery was especially active at night, firing with a method known as “searching and sweeping”, aiming first in a direct line, then so many degrees left and right, seeking to cut our supply routes, as it was under cover of darkness that our ammunition and food reached us’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Siegfried Sassoon > George Sassoon > Phillips, Bath, 31 Oct. 1994 (£34,000). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 45

Seaside, The – study (aka Sun-bathing), c.1965–6. Pencil and watercolour, 14.6 x 18.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12707). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976, Tate Britain 2012

Seaside, The (aka Sun-bathing), c.1965–6. Oil on canvas, 61 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Arts Council Collection (1967). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Manchester 1985, Arts Council 1986, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007, Bexhill 2008, Leeds 2015. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 130

Seat in the Park, A, see Park Bench, The, 1933

Seated Woman (Sarah Kramer, later Roberts), 1920 (signed). Pencil on paper, 33 x 33. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Arts Council Collection (1954). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Arts Council 1955, Arts Council 1958, Tate Gallery 1965

(recto) Seated Woman (Paring?) and Curled-up Cat, 1920s. Black chalk, 14.7 x 22.5
(verso) Three Figures, c.1925. Black chalk, 14 x 21.3
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Seaweed Gatherers, see Women Gathering Seaweed, c.1953

Second Defence System – study for The Wiring Party, 1918–19. Pencil, coloured chalk and watercolour, squared, 16 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery > ? > Christie’s 21 Oct. 2021 (£30,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated 1916–18)), Manchester (1) 1972 (where dated 1916–18)

See-saw, The – study for The See-saw, 1976. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

See-saw, The (aka See-saws), 1976. Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Christie’s 11 Nov. 1988 (£5,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977, Albemarle Gallery 1989

See-saws, see See-saw, The, 1976

(recto) Selecting Calves – study, c.1940. Pencil, 16.5 x 21.5
(verso) Calves (study for recto reversed), c.1940. Pencil, 16.5 x 21.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Selecting Calves (aka Inspecting the Calves), c.1940. Pencil and watercolour, 16.5 x 21.5. PROVENANCE: WR > ? (wedding present, 1942) > Christie’s 30 Sept. 1999 (£4,025)

Selecting Calves, c.1940. Oil on canvas, 33.0 x 43.2. PROVENANCE: National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (gift of the Arts Council of Wales, 2002)

Self Service, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 19 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Self Service, 1978 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 45.7. PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold (1983) > ? > Bigwood Fine Art Auctioneers, Stratford-upon-Avon 28 June 2019 (£10,483) > Goodman Fine Art > Sotheby’s 20–30 July 2020 (online sale; estimate £30,000–£50,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Stow-on-the-Wold 1983

Self-portrait, suggest 1909–10 (also dated as 1911). Coloured pencil on paper, 23.6 x 18.7. PROVENANCE: WR > Dora Carrington > Noel Carrington (till 1971) > private collection until 1987 > ? > Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Van Day Truex Fund, 1988 (1988.4.1)). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, Hayward Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, New York 1987, New York 2009. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 12

Self-portrait, c.1919. Woodcut for Mansard Gallery 1920 catalogue, 7.5 x 5. REPRODUCED: Mansard Gallery 1920 catalogue (‘For the lack of a manifesto we consoled ourselves with a catalogue illustrated with wood-cut self-portraits of each “X”-ist’ – Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 12)

Self-portrait, c.1920. Charcoal and red chalk, 35.6 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 16 June 1976 > ? > Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (bequest of William S. Lieberman, 2005 (2007.49.83))

Self-portrait, 1923. Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Arthur Crossland > ? > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 66

Self-portrait, c.1925. Pencil and pink wash, 12.7 x 9.8. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes (1932) > King’s College. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (10 gns), Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

Self-portrait, c.1925. Etching, 12.6 x 9.8. ‘”Self-Portrait” exists in three states, progressing from the lightly flecked surface of the first state to a much denser network of lines and heavier inking in the third’ – British Museum online catalogue. PROVENANCE: Bobby and Virginia Chapman > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers 16 Oct. 2013 (first state, £1,550); British Museum (second state, bought from Dr Frederick Mulder, 1985); Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014) (third state). EXHIBITION HISTORY: (various impressions) Hamet Gallery 1971, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (third state), Cambridge 1985 (third state), British Museum 1990 (second state), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 1, first state). REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 (third state), Kendal 1999 (second state)

Self-portrait, c.1926? Pencil on paper, 24.3 x 20.9. PROVENANCE: Stephen Gaselee > Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1929). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Self-portrait, c.1930 (signed). Conté crayon, 33.0 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£990) > ? > Gerald Schurr > Binoche, Paris, 23 May 2000 (18,000F (£1,681)). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (5 gns)?, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. Cf. Self-portrait 1960, where Roberts adopts the same pose and expression

Self-portrait, 1936–7 (signed). Brown chalk, 33.0 x 22.9. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > ? > Christie’s 15 Mar. 1985 (£918). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Self-portrait, c.1937. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938, Liverpool 1938, Redfern Gallery 1942

Self-portrait, 1940 (signed and dated William Roberts / Oxford 1940). Red chalk on grey paper, 27.3 x 19.6. ‘Face only. An inspired look’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980 (as ‘self-portrait, 1936–37’), Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 3), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 2)

Self-portrait, c.1943 (collar, no tie). Pencil, 36.8 x 26.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 5), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 3)

Self-portrait, 1949. Red chalk, 31.8 x 24.1. This self-portrait was first published in Art News and Review 1, 20 (5 Nov. 1949), to illustrate an article by the artist. PROVENANCE: Richard Gainsborough > John Gainsborough > Tate Gallery Archive (TGA 8214.90, 1982). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery 1989 catalogue (by David Fraser Jenkins and Sarah Fox-Pitt)

Self-portrait (determined), c.1957–9. Pencil, 27 x 18. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 38)

Self-portrait (serious, with slightly raised eyebrow), c.1957–9. Pencil, 26.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 37)

Self-portrait, 1960. Pencil, 27.5x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Albemarle Gallery > ? > Thos. Agnew & Sons > ? > Sotheby’s 18 Mar. 2008 (£4,375). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989. Cf. Self-portrait c.1930, where Roberts adopts the same pose and expression

Self-portrait, c.1960. Pencil and pink wash, 27.7 x 22.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 11, described as ‘Pastel and pencil’)

Self-portrait (with collar and tie), 1963 (dated as c.1960–65 National Portrait Gallery 1984). Pencil, 37 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983?, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 11), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 7)

Self-portrait, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 38.2 x 28. PROVENANCE: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1969.189). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Self-portrait, c.1965. Oil on canvas, 50 x 41. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Self-portrait (full length seated, grey trousers, fawn jacket, hands apart), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.6. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > ? (by descent) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969?, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 15), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 27)

Self-portrait (full length seated, grey jacket, blue shirt, sketching), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.7. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > ? (by descent) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 30)

Self-portrait (full length seated, mauve jacket, legs crossed), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969?, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 14), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 9)

Self-portrait (full length seated, yellow shirt, reddish-brown jacket, sketching), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 12), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 10)

Self-portrait (full length standing, blue shirt, red braces, sketching), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969?, National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 13), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 29)

Self-portrait (half-length, sketching, with purple tie), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 33 x 24.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 31)

Self-portrait (head and casual shirt, neck cut off in V shape with no shoulder line), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 38.1 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: National Portrait Gallery (NPG 5063, bought 1975). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, National Portrait Gallery 1984. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Self-portrait (holding right arm, green waistcost, legs extended), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 26)

Self-portrait (sketching, wearing pink shirt and yellow tie), 1965? Watercolour and pencil, 33.0 x 24.1. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay Gallery > Christie’s 3 Mar. 1989 (£5,280) > Yale Center for British Art (B1990.1)

Self-portrait (standing, brown shirt, grey trousers, hands at waist), c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 27. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 28)

Self-portrait, 1968. Pencil, 33.5 x 20. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 21 Mar. 2018 (£11,875). REPRODUCED: Wolseley Fine Art – cover of prospectus – in The Independent, 17 Mar. 1990, p. 26

Self-portrait, c.1968. Pencil on light green paper, 31 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > ? > Christie’s 20 June 1996 (£1,495) > Wolseley Fine Art

Self-portrait, ‘early 70s’ (Reading 1983). Drawing, 27.5 x 18.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Self-portrait, ‘early 70s’ (Reading 1983). Drawing, 37 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Self-portrait, c.1970. Pencil, 36.8 x 27.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 17)

Self-portrait, c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Bobby and Virginia Chapman > Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers, 16 Oct. 2013 (£3,224) > ? > private collection (2020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Self-portrait (aka The Leprechaun), c.1970. Pencil on grey paper, 31.5 x 23. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 17), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 12)

Self-portrait (hand to chin), c.1970. Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 15)

Self-portrait (three-quarter face), 1970 (signed and dated). Pencil, 33 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 16)

Self-portrait, 1971 (signed and dated). (‘Intense … Collar. No tie’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Pencil, 36.5 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 18)

Self-portrait, 1971. Pencil, 36.5 x 26.3. ‘Depressed’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue; ‘perhaps betrays the onset of ill health about this time’ – National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984 (no. 19), Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 19)

Self-portrait, 1972. (‘Melancholic … Collar, no tie’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Pencil on paper, 36.8 x 26.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 21)

Self-portrait, 1973 (signed and dated). (‘Collar, no tie … serious’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Pencil on paper, 38.1 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery > Lord and Lady Neill > ? (by descent) > Bonhams 30 June 2021 (£10,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 22)

Self-portrait, 1974 (signed and dated). (‘Serious … Face only, no collar’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue). Pencil on paper, 36.8 x 26.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 23)

Self-portrait, 1976 (signed and dated). (‘Face only. Depressed’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Pencil on paper, 36.8 x 26.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 25)

Self-portrait, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, 24 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991? (no. 35? – though the catalogue entry for this does not mention the date)

Self-portrait (hand to cheek), 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil, 30.5 x 22. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 34)

Self-portrait, 1979. (‘Resignation … Pipe and spectacles’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 40)

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Pencil, 25.5 x 34 (?). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Pencil, 25.5 x 34 (?). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Pencil, 30 x 23. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 36)

Self-portrait, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper, inscribed ‘Self Portrait’, 13.2 x 7.8. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Self-portrait (full face, no collar), date uncertain. Pencil, 38 x 24. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 39)

Self-portrait, date uncertain (possibly one of those listed above). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Self-portrait, The, 1947 (signed and dated). Watercolour over pencil, 20.3 x 12.7. A naked female artist is painting a self-portrait using a mirror. (Is this The Painter 1948?) PROVENANCE: Phillips 21 Nov. 2000 (£2,600)

Self-portrait, The (aka Self-portrait of an Artist), 1947 (signed). Charcoal and watercolour, 51 x 32. PROVENANCE: The Leicester Galleries > Wilfrid Evill (Jan. 1952, 30 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£18,125). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949, Leicester Galleries (1) 1952. Contemporary Art Society 1955, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Anthony d’Offay 1980

Self-portrait with Arms Folded, 1976. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 32)

Self-portrait in a Blue Shirt (tie and braces), c.1955–6. Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 4)

Self-portrait in a Cap, c.1976 (signed upper left ‘William/Roberts’). Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. ‘was clearly executed towards the end of his life’ – NPG 1984 catalogue, p. 12. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (where wrongly dated as c.1960), National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 33)

Self-portrait with Cap and Neckerchief, 1975 (signed and dated bottom left ‘William/Roberts/75’). Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 24)

Self-portrait in a Jacket, 1958 (dated). Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 30.5. ‘Savage, ferocious, but quite like’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 5)

Self-portrait with Knotted Handkerchief (aka Portrait of the Artist), 1964. (‘Roberts never painted abroad, but he and Sarah attended several guitar festivals in Spain. He sometimes adopted this form of headgear in the heat of Spain or the South of France. This portrait was painted in his London studio’ – John David Roberts in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue.) Oil on canvas, 35.6 x 25.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1964, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 8)

Self-portrait with Pale Green Tie, c.1960. Oil on canvas, 48.9 x 40.6. (Is this Portrait of the Artist c.1960?) ‘Sarah remembers making his tie from an odd piece of silk which he is seen wearing with one of his “Aertex” shirts … Braces, yellow-ish green tie – Grim’ – John David Roberts in Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 6)

Self-portrait in a Skull Cap, 1972. Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. (‘The skull cap, perhaps a sardonic reference to Titian [see here], was in fact a swimming cap which he owned’ – National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue, p. 12.) PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991 (no. 20)

Self-portrait with Spotted Tie, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 23.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993?

Self-portrait Wearing a Cap, 1931 (dated as 1931 on Tate website; also dated as 1928 in Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958 and 1929 in Williams, William Roberts). Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 35.9. PROVENANCE: Sir Cyril Butler > Redfern Gallery > Tate Gallery (N05372, purchased 1942). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (25 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942, CEMA tour (2) 1945, National Gallery 1945, Tate Gallery 1965, Paris 1980, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 77

Self-portraits, Four, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 26.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay 1969?, National Portrait Gallery 1984, Gillian Jason Gallery 1991. REPRODUCED: National Portrait Gallery 1984 catalogue

Sending-in Day, 1975. Pencil, 12.7 x 17.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12683). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Sending-in Day, 1975. Pencil and watercolour, 38.1 x 45.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12715). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Serving Food, date uncertain. Pencil, 12.3 x 8.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Setting the Pose, c.1957. Pencil, 19.1 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12674). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Setting the Pose, c.1957. Pencil and watercolour, 54 x 37. N.B. a different composition from Marking the Pose 1952. PROVENANCE: Presented to Lawrence Gowing > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 16–23 Sept. 2021 (online sale, £10,080). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1983. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Aircraftman Shaw (aka Portrait of T. E. Lawrence), 1922. Oil on canvas, 92 x 61. In early 1920 a former Slade colleague of Roberts’s, Colin Gill, wrote to, him ‘Colonel Lawrence is seeking artists to make portrait drawings for a book he is producing [Seven Pillars of Wisdom]; get in touch with him.’ Roberts did so. A year or so later Lawrence (1888–1935) commissioned Roberts to paint his own portrait. The sittings took place in a flat in Earls Court in which Roberts had been borrowing a room. In August 1922 Lawrence enlisted in the Royal Air Force under the name John Hume Ross, in attempt to avoid his celebrity as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. He was soon exposed, and in February 1923 was forced out of the air force. He then enlisted in the Tank Corps as T. E. Shaw, but was unhappy there and in August 1925 was allowed to return to the RAF as Aircraftman Shaw. ‘Air-Craftsman Shaw’ was – anachronistically – the name that Roberts gave the painting in his publication Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts ARA (London, 1960). In a letter to Roberts on 16 February 1923 Lawrence wrote about his RAF uniform, ‘Most of the R.A.F. would accept your judgement upon it: but it’s easy to look after, & comfortable, & so I had no quarrel with it. People of my odd shape would look funny in anything, you know.’ PROVENANCE: Presented by Professor A. W. Lawrence > Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (WA1946.267). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, National Portrait Gallery 1988, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004, Imperial War Museum 2005. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 15

Sheaves of Wheat, c.1953. Pen and ink, 17.5 x 7.5 (signed with the initials ‘WR’). A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (not individually identified in the Worthing 1972 catalogue, but probably exhibited alongside other LHC materials), Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945) REPRODUCED: In orange ink on the back cover of the 1956 revised edition of Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health

Shell Burst, 1918 (inscribed ‘Shell Burst’ bottom right). Crayon, 7 x 11.1. PROVENANCE: Bought from Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1969, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969. Cf. Shell Burst (aka 5.9 Bursting … Down) 1919

Shell Burst – study, see 5.9 Bursting … Down! 1919

Shell Burst (aka 5.9 Bursting … Down), 1919 (signed and dated). Pencil, ink and watercolour, 40 x 44. PROVENANCE: Mervyn Levy > Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry (COVGM: VA.1968.0072, bought 1968). Cf. Shell Burst 1918

Shell Dump, A, 1919 (signed and dated). Ink and watercolour, 44.9 x 52.5. This post-dates the Imperial War Museum Shell Dump, which is a quite different composition. PROVENANCE Osbert Sitwell > Estate of Sir Reresby Sitwell. EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1994, Renishaw Hall 1998, Renishaw Hall 2010

Shell Dump, France, Sketch for A, 1918 (signed and dated). Pen and watercolour, 30.4 x 50.8. The composition is quite different from that of the eventual oil. PROVENANCE: Commissioned by the Ministry of Information > Imperial War Museum (1889). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Tate Gallery 1965, Nottingham 1972, Brighton 1979, Brighton 1982

Shell Dump, France, Study for A, 1918 (signed and dated). Pencil, 31.1 x 50.8, squared – but the composition is quite different from that of the eventual oil. PROVENANCE: Commissioned by the Ministry of Information > Imperial War Museum (1164). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Tate Gallery 1965, Brighton 1982

Shell Dump, France, A, 1918–19. Oil on canvas, 182.8 x 317.8. ‘Preparing to load ammunition wagons to be taken to the Gun Line. The men are protected from aerial observation by a raffia screen’ – Royal Academy (2) 1919 catalogue. Commissioned by the Ministry of Information in May 1918 while William Roberts was working on the Canadian Commission The First German Gas Attack at Ypres. Work began in June 1918, and was completed in Aug. 1919. ‘It was painted in 10 Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, SW3 which was rented specially for the purpose’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. Roberts went to Bramley Dump, near Reading, to look at shells, particularly the smaller types, and also made use of photographs of shells (IWM 277/6). PROVENANCE: Commissioned by the Ministry of Information > Imperial War Museum (2273). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919 (‘a true wall-painting, which catches the eye and delights it as you enter the room from the far end. But go closer, and you will see that this pleasure to the eye, as of leopard-skins not stretched on the ground, but on living and moving leopards, is obtained by the intensity of life in all the figures and by their living relation to each other. It is not, in aim, a decoration, but an illustration; and that is why it beautifies rather than prettifies the wall. The figures are occupied with their own business; they are not there to make the picture, but they do make it far better than posed models would’ – The Times, 12 Dec. 1919; ‘a congestion of (to me) meaningless puckers … reduces the whole surface to a sort of energetic textile pattern’ – Burlington Magazine, Feb. 1920, p. 95), Tate Gallery 1965, Arts Council 1965, Tate Britain 2018. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 44

Shimmey, The, c.1926. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group (2) 1926 (£50)

Shipping, 1925. Watercolour, 20.6 x 34. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > John H. Lister. EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club (1) 1925, Leicester Galleries (2) 1962, Tate Gallery 1965

Shoe-black, The – study (aka The Shoe-cleaner), c.1955. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Shoe-black, The, 1955. Pencil and wash on paper, 50.5 x 34.2. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Arts Council Collection (1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Arts Council 1986, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 92

Shoe-cleaner, The, see Shoe-black, The – study, c.1955

Shoe-shop, The – study, c.1954. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: New Grafton Gallery 1976 > James Birch > Christie’s South Kensington 10 Dec. 2015 (£4,375). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1976

Shoe-shop, The – study, c.1954 (signed). Pencil and watercolour, 18.5 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: WR > ? > ? (by descent) > Bonhams 30 June 2021 (£16,500)

Shoe-shop, The (aka The Shoes and Customers in a Shoe-shop), c.1954. Oil on canvas 91.5 x 61. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1981 (£3,080) > ? > Christie’s 4 Mar. 1983 (£3,400) > Sotheby’s 13 May 1992 > Isleworth Foundation, Florida, USA (purchased May 1992). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1955 (as The Shoes: ‘a horrifying vision of rubbery robots trying on shoes with coy smiles on their faces’ – Alan Clutton-Brock, The Listener, 28 July 1955), Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Royal Academy 1959, Tate Gallery 1965, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Shoes, The, see Shoe-shop, The, c.1954

Shooting Party, The – study, 1976 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 22.5 x 16. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Shooting Party, The (aka The Huntsman), 1976 (dated). Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40.5. PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold (1983) > Derek Williams (3 Mar. 1984) > Derek Williams Trust > National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (long-term loan). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (1) 1977, Stow-on-the-Wold 1983

Shoppers Meeting (study for Mothers), 1944–5. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 16.5 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£3,096). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972

Shower, The (aka Umbrellas) – study, c.1964. Pencil, squared, on two sheets of paper, one stuck on top of the other, 23 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Shower, The (aka Umbrellas), c.1964 (also dated 1960 in Exeter 1971 and Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogues). Pencil and watercolour, 40 x 28. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Shower, The (aka Umbrellas), c.1964. Pencil and watercolour, 50.7 x 34.3. PROVENANCE: Leeds City Art Gallery (presented by the Royal Academy through the Hugill Bequest Fund, 1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 108

(recto) Shuttlecock – study (aka Battledore and Shuttlecock), suggest 1934. Pencil, 16.5 x 12.1
(verso) Camargo Ballet drop-curtain design fragment, 1931
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12710). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Shuttlecock – suggest 1934. Drawing. PROVENANCE: Sold by the artist 28 Feb. 1935. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Shuttlecock – study, 1934? Gouache, 24.1 x 18.2. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 16 Sept. 1998 (£1,265). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (12 gns), Bradford 1939 (£10)

Shuttlecock, suggest 1934. Oil on canvas, 53 x 41. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes (bought 1938) > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (50 gns), Cambridge 1983

Siesta, c.1944. Watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945. Cf. Siesta 1957 and Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park (aka The Siesta) 1973

Siesta – study, 1957. Pencil squared, 13 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Siesta, 1957 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 35.6 x 48.3. In the Worthing 1972 catalogue this portrait of Sadie Cooper relaxing was described by Ernest Cooper as a companion to Playmates 1957. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Dec. 1998 (£4,945). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. Ernest Cooper, Esq. c.1949 and Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park (aka The Siesta) 1973

Siesta, 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 14.0 x 17.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Siesta, 1974. Oil on canvas, 40 x 50.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Siesta, The, see Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park, 1973

Signallers, 1918 (signed and dated Aug. 1918). Pen, ink and watercolour, 30.5 x 50. Inscribed ‘The D2 Rail’. PROVENANCE: Commissioned by the Ministry of Information > Imperial War Museum (1167). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Washington, DC, 1919, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: J. Rothenstein, British Artists and the War, pl. 52

Simple Guide to Healthy Food, A, c.1953 – a cover design for a publication of Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health (c.1953)Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd, using the drawings Children Eating and Drinking and >Basket of Fruit with Bottles. Other LHC cover designs by Roberts were Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health (c.1953), Good Food for Growing Children (c.1948), Salads for All Seasons (c.1953) and Towards Better Health (c.1953). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972. Cf. The Kitchen – study (aka Some Recipes), 1942–5

Singers, c.1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (9 gns). Cf. The Choir c.1943

Singing the Blues, 1956–7. Pencil, 13.0 x 10.0, on the back of a fragment of paper printed with the letterhead of William Johnstone OBE, Central School of Arts and Crafts. Johnstone was principal of the Central School – where Roberts taught a life class – from 1947 to 1960, and was made an OBE in 1954. In 1956–7 Melvin Endsley’s song ‘Singing the Blues’ provided UK hit records for Guy Mitchell and for Tommy Steele and the Steelmen. Roberts may have been unable to avoid hearing these records, and in this sketch may be expressing a preference for an earlier song, actually titled ‘Singin’ the Blues’, by J. Russel Robinson, Con Conrad, Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young, which had been a jazz standard since the 1920s. PROVENANCE: Roberts family > family friend > Osborne Samuel Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Cambridge 1985 (where said that ‘It may date from as early as 1921/22 … ’)

Sirhan – study for The Valley of the Sirhan, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 20. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 57)

Situations Vacant, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 19.4 x 15. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971

Skittle Alley (a study for The Bowling Alley 1927–8), c.1927. Pencil and watercolour, 13.9 x 11.4. In 2012 this watercolour was sold by Christie’s South Kensington as French Peasants c.1930, although when it was previously sold by Bonhams Chelsea in 1996 it was entitled Skittle Alley and French Peasants, in the same sale, was a quite different work. The Bonhams titles and sizes correspond to those given when both works were exhibited by Anthony d’Offay in 1969. PROVENANCE: Bonhams Chelsea 4 July 1996 (£1,100) > ? > Christie’s South Kensington 14 Dec. 2012 (£7,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Slade Model, Portrait of (I assume this is Portrait of an Old Man), date unknown – suggest 1912. Oil on canvas, 46 x 35.5. Signed and inscribed ‘A slade model who sat as a young man for Millais Speak! Speak!’ on the reverse. (The subject was ‘an old grey-haired Italian model, who as a young man had posed for Millais’ painting, entitled “Speak, Speak!” [1895]. He was very proud of this, and would tell the students “Me, Speak, Speak”’ – Roberts, Early Years, p. 12.) PROVENANCE: Guy Eccles > Sotheby’s 3 Nov. 1982 (£600) > ? > Sotheby’s 18 March 2008 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold) > Lyon & Turnbull 2 Dec. 2009 (estimate £2,000–£4,000; unsold) > Lyon & Turnbull 10 June 2010 (estimate £1,000–£1,500; unsold)

Sleeping Girl, c.1942. Pencil and watercolour, 12.1 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 6 March 2007 (£2,640). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Sleeping. Waking – study, 1925–6. Pencil on paper; 28 x 19.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 15)

Sleeping. Waking, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 30.5 x 25. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’The camp gradually stilled as the tired men and animals went one by one to sleep’ (ch. 18). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 38). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 36

Slum Park, The, c.1924. Could this be Figures in the Park c.1924? EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Chenil Galleries (2) 1925?

(verso) Snakes, c.1953 – study for Brush Up Your Jungle zoo poster c.1953
(recto) Swimming Baths. Pencil, 17 x 7
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Snakes, c.1953. Pen and watercolour. Illustration for the border of the text panel of the London Transport poster Brush Up Your Jungle

Snooker – study, 1968 (dated in ballpoint). Pencil, 18.5 x 13. PROVENANCE: Albemarle Gallery > ? > Bonhams 18 Mar. 2009 (estimate £2,000–£3,000; unsold) > Bonhams 25 Jan. 2011 (£8,400) > Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989, Cambridge 1985

Snooker – study (aka Billiard Players), c.1968. Pencil and watercolour, 38 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 2 July 2008 (£12,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Snooker, 1968–9. Oil on canvas, 137.2 x 96.5. PROVENANCE: Frank Cohen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Fortnum & Mason 2016

Soirée, c.1937. Drawing. Possibly a retitling of a version of Bohemians/Music Lovers. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns)

Soldier’s Dream, The – study (aka The Dream), 1972. Pencil and watercolour, 15.9 x 19.0. PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester > Christie’s 8 June 1979 (£260). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Maclean Gallery 1980

Soldier’s Dream, The, 1972 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 41 x 51. PROVENANCE: Sarah Roberts > ? > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 30 June 2021 (£60,480). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973, Chichester 2007

Soldiers Erecting Camouflage at Roclincourt near Arras, 1917–19, see Soldiers Hanging Camouflage Screens Roclincourt, Arras, Spring 1917, suggest 1918

Soldiers Hanging Up Camouflage Screens (‘Hanging up Camouflage Screens to trees at night near to the Front Line, Roclincourt, near Arras, Winter 1917’ – inscribed under mount (Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980 catalogue, in which dated 1917), suggest 1918. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, 12.5 x 10. PROVENANCE: Croft Collection > Sotheby’s 4 July 2002 (£5,287). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Soldiers Hanging Camouflage Screens Roclincourt, Arras, Spring 1917 (aka Soldiers Erecting Camouflage at Roclincourt, near Arras – Tate Gallery 1965), suggest 1918 (‘The artist told the V&A that it was painted in 1918 but it could equally well have been done early in 1919. He was planning at this period to have an exhibition of drawings of war subjects. Unfortunately, shortage of money obliged him, about June 1919, to sell most of the drawings that he had gathered together and the exhibition never materialised’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue, p. 23). Ink and watercolour, 40.6 x 34.9. According to the V&A catalogue, ‘A label on the background bears an inscription in the artist’s hand “Arras. The Village of Roclincourt. Working party putting up camouflage screens at night near the Front Line”.’ ‘We were employed in the vacant offices of the “Mairie” making camouflage screens. This consisted in tying strips of various coloured bits of canvas to string netting, or painting large spreads of canvas with jig-saw patterns. These we took at night and hung on trees or wood supports, the intention being to hide from the Germans a portion of road which would be used by our guns and transport in the event of an advance. But whether the enemy were deceived by this contour that had arisen overnight, there was no means of knowing’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: WR > E. M. O’R. Dickey (1919) > Victoria & Albert Museum (P.94-1962). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Arts Council (2) 1980, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Madrid 2008. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 37

Soldiers Hauling a Howitzer, 1917, signed and dated. Ink and watercolour, 16.6 x 33.5. ‘When the Germans had been forced to fall back, they had abandoned some of their field guns which now stood isolated in no-man’s land. The commanders of the 51st Brigade batteries arranged among themselves to try and salvage these guns. D. Battery’s task – and it was rumoured that our major had chosen the hardest – was to bring in two field howitzers that had been left a short distance beyond our front lines. On the night fixed for the undertaking, our salvage party having been given a double tot of rum, then set off with two six-horse teams, to do the job. The horses were left behind our own line while we crept out. Fortunately there was no barbed wire to tangle with and we endeavoured to free the gun wheels embedded in the hard earth. Without arousing any hostile activity from the opposite trenches, we manhandled the two howitzers to where we had left the horses’ – Roberts, Memories of the War to End War 1914–18. PROVENANCE: Samantha Frank. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 2004, Madrid 2008, Osborne Samuel 2014. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 47

Soldiers Putting Up Wagon Lines, 1919 (signed and dated). Black chalk on beige, 47.6 x 49.4. PROVENANCE: Mayor Gallery > Rt Hon. David Bathurst > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1984 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold?) > ? > British Museum (bought from L. & R. Entwistle & Co. Ltd, 1989). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Exeter 1971, Morley College Gallery 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Entwistle Fine Art 1989

Soldiers at Train, see Station Scene in Wartime, A, c.1943

Soldiers on a Train, see Railway Station, The, c.1943

Some Recipes, see Kitchen, The – study, 1942–5

Something Road Group, The (aka Red Slippers), c.1956 (signed lower left, inscribed ‘Red Slippers’ lower centre, and inscribed again ‘The Something Road Group’ lower right). Pencil and watercolour, 14 x 23.5. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 5 Sept. 2002 (where incorrectly titled The Good Old Days, £3,290) > ? > Christie’s 16 Nov. 2007 (as Red Slippers, £12,500) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated c.1936). Cf. Les Rapins 1946–9

Something Road Group, The, c.1956. Pencil and watercolour, 37.7 x 55.9. The ‘Something Road Group’ of the title is presumably a parody of artists’ groups taking their name from specific locations, such as the Euston Road Group, associated with the School of Drawing and Painting founded in the Euston Road in 1937 by William Coldstream, Victor Pasmore, Claude Rogers and Graham Bell; the Fitzroy Street Group, formed by Walter Sickert in 1907; and the Camden Town Group, again formed by Walter Sickert, around 1911. The Camden Town Group was a men-only exhibiting group, in contrast to Roberts’s Something Road Group, which significantly features women artists and sculptors. Roberts appears to find amusement at the women artists’ trying to juggle their artistic aspirations with their role as mothers – an idea which is also explored in Artist and Wife 1940. Another theme that had been explored earlier (in The Critic Intervenes c.1948, for example) is the interference of the art critic in the work of the artist. In The Something Road Group there are two interventions by critics in response to the art works. Roberts exhibited with the London Group (founded in 1913) until 1949. In that year he depicted a London Group gathering in the watercolour The London Group Gives a Reception, a complex group composition with some similarities to The Something Road Group. PROVENANCE: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (through the Felton Bequest, 1959). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Melbourne 2007. Cf. Les Rapins 1946–9

Songs of Selim el Jezairi – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 40)

Songs of Selim el Jezairi, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ’Often, too, Nesib el Bekri would take out his manuscript of the songs of Selim el Jezairi, that fierce unscrupulous revolutionary who, in his leisure moments between campaigns, the Staff College, and the bloody missions he fulfilled for the Young Turks, his masters, had made up verses in the common speech of the people about the freedom which was coming to his race. Nesib and his friends had a swaying rhythm in which they would chant these songs, putting all hope and passion into the words, their pale Damascus faces moon-large in the firelight, sweating. The soldier camp would grow dead silent till the stanza ended, and then from every man would come a sighing, longing echo of the last note’ (ch. 39). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 41). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 416 (as A Jolly Evening)

Spanish Bar, c.1968. Pencil, 12.7 x 18.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12703, as Bar Scene)

Spanish Beggars
– study, 1934. Pencil, squared, 13 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Spanish Beggars – study, 1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938? (9 gns), Bradford 1939?

Spanish Beggars – study, 1934. Watercolour over pencil, 25 x 19. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£4,117). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938? (9 gns), Bradford 1939? (£10), Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Spanish Beggars, 1934 (dated). Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 40. PROVENANCE: Maynard Keynes (bought 1938) > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (50 gns), Cambridge 1983

Spanish Dancers, 1935. Pencil, squared, 24 x 24. PROVENANCE: Bonhams 18 Nov. 2009 (£4,800) > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989, Woking 2011, Bristol 2015. Cf. Spanish Rhythm 1946–9

Spanish Gypsies, see Spanish Rhythm, 1946–9

Spanish Melody, undated, suggest 1925–6 (signed). Pencil, 26.0 x 36.2. PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 136, with Mandolines and Guitars c.1925–6 and Night Alarm 1925–6; £5 10s.) > ‘Bernard, St.’

Spanish Rhythm – study, 1946–9. Pencil, 24.1 x 24.1. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Spanish Rhythm – study, 1946–9. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 13.3 x 15.9. PROVENANCE: WR > Mrs Adele Kramer (Sarah Roberts’s guitar teacher – no relation; probably received in payment for lessons) > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1990 (as Dancing to Music and dated 1966–74; £3,520) > Christopher Hull Gallery 1992 > ? > Bonhams 12 June 2019 (£10,062). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Christopher Hull Gallery 1992

Spanish Rhythm (aka Spanish Gypsies and Spanish Dancers), 1946–9. Oil on canvas, 56 x 66.5. This has generally been dated to 1937 – e.g. in the Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue – but it seems unlikely that a work executed then would not have been exhibited before 1949, in Roberts’s solo London exhibitions in 1938 and 1942, say. It has therefore been assumed that it is a later work, perhaps prompted by a post-war trip to Spain or a visit to London by a Spanish dance company. PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery > Leicester Galleries > Wilfrid Evill (Oct. 1949, £75) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£91,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (3) 1949 (sold for 75 gns), Tate Gallery 1952, Whitechapel Gallery 1952, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. Spanish Dancers 1935

Sparring Partners, c.1919. Watercolour on paper, 35.5 x 25.5. PROVENANCE: Pauline Vogelpoel (director of the Contemporary Art Society, 2002) > Tate Gallery (T11792, 2004)

Speakers’ Corner – study, 1979 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 20.3 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Speakers’ Corner (aka Political Meeting, Greece and The Greek Meeting), 1979. Oil on canvas, 61.0 x 45.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 (as Political Meeting, Greece), Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as The Greek Meeting)

Spine Drill – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28 x 20.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 52)

Spine Drill, 1925–6 (two figures sleeping). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 20. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘We sat down on the palm-leaf mat which ran along the dais. The day in this stifling valley had grown very hot; and gradually we lay back side by side. Then the hum of the bees in the gardens without, and of the flies hovering over our veiled faces within, lulled us into sleep’ (ch. 11). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 53). REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 65

(recto) Spring Flowers – study (aka Women with a Bunch of Flowers), c.1959. Pencil, 17.5 x 12
(verso) Prince Philip – study for Trooping the Colour 1958–9 (also dated 1960 in the Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986 catalogue, but it seems unlikely that this sketch would have been carried out after the final work had been completed)
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12663, as Two Ladies Talking). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

(recto) Spring Flowers, c.1959. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 23.8.
(verso) Female nude
PROVENANCE: Roberts Simms > Denys Wilcox Fine Art > Howard Goodall (Nov. 2002) > Pat Goodall > private collection

Spring Flowers, c.1959. Pencil and watercolour, 42 x 30. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 19 July 1989 (£7,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Spring Lambing (aka Spring), 1956. Pen and ink, 18.9 x 13.3. One of four designs commissioned by Ernest Cooper for a ‘Four Seasons Callendare’, as the Worthing 1972 catalogue called it – Spring Lambing (aka Spring), Sun-bathing (aka Summer), Huntsmen (aka Autumn) and Christmas Party (aka Winter). Cooper regularly used William Roberts’s drawings on a ‘healthy eating’ theme for business calendars for his London Health Centre Ltd in the 1950s. The calendar’s dates correspond to the year 1957, so it is likely that it was produced at the end of 1956. The set was ‘repeated as a calendar by Sarah and John [Roberts] in the 80s’ (Gillian Jason Gallery) and again by the William Roberts Society for 2002. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (assumed to be part of lot 114, ‘four signed drawings in pen and black ink, framed as one’, which with the cover artwork for the LHC’s Towards Better Health catalogue sold for £5,980) > Duncan Miller Fine Arts > Ruth Artmonsky > ? > Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£3,760 for the four calendar drawings). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Springboard, The – study, 1956–7? Pencil, 18.4 x 16.2 PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12738, as People Diving into a Swimming Pool)

Springboard, The, 1956–7? (also dated c.1958; inscribed ‘The Springboard’). Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 35, squared. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965) > Cork Street Gallery > John Grinstead > Sotheby’s 11 Mar. 1992 (£6,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965

Squirrel, The, c.1937. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns)

Staff Conference – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 17 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 39 (part))

Staff Conference – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28.5 x 19.5. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 43)

Staff Conference, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 42). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 465

Standing Figure see Stretching Man c.1920s

Standing Woman with Folded Arms (Sarah Roberts), pre-June 1919 (signed). Red chalk, 55 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Dudley Museum and Art Gallery (bought 1955). EXHIBITION HISTORY: A.I.A. Gallery 1995. Cf. Sarah Pregnant pre-June 1919

Station – study for A Station Scene in Wartime,
1943 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 20 x 27.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Station Scene in Wartime, A (aka Soldiers at Train), c.1943. Watercolour, 37.5 x 52.5. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD1501), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee, 1941. Destroyed by enemy action – LOST

Still Life, A, date uncertain. Watercolour and soft pencil, 49.5 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Sold 1980

Stockbroker’s Clerk, The, 1920. Oil on canvas, 77.5 x 63.5. ‘A portrait of one of the artist’s brothers [Joseph Roberts?], who worked in a stockbroker’s office and died young’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. ‘The Stock-broker’s Clerk’ is also the title of one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, in which someone takes up an ostensibly good job but is then kept hanging around doing little. PROVENANCE: Hugh Blaker > Leicester Galleries > E. Brown and Phillips (?) > British Council (Mar. 1948). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Goupil Gallery 1920, Whitechapel Gallery 1928, Manchester 1929, Brighton 1929, New Zealand and Australia 1934, Tate Gallery (2) 1935, Leicester Galleries (1) 1948, British Council 1957 (as Self-portrait), British Council 1963, Tate Gallery 1965, British Council 1992. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 51

Street Acrobats (aka Pavement Scene and Composition in Water-colour), 1923. Pencil and watercolour, 28.5 x 20.5. Although dated as c.1913–15 in the Maclean Gallery 1980 catalogue (which incorrectly suggests that it could be a study for Overbacks 1915), this is actually a study for Street Acrobats in the King’s College collection, which is signed and dated as 1923, and the finished watercolour is consistent with Robert’s angular style of the early 1920s. PROVENANCE: John Winter > James Hyman Fine Arts > ? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Street Acrobats, 1923 (signed and dated in black ink). Pencil, ink and watercolour, 50 x 35.5. This appears to be a different work from The Acrobats c.1921, as studies for this and The Acrobats were exhibited at the Parkin Gallery (1976) as separate works with no connection being made between the two. The catalogue for the 1983 Maynard Keynes exhibition in Cambridge notes that ‘This strong drawing has much in common with Wyndham Lewis’ work of the same period.’ PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 138, with Family and Dog c.1926 and French Sailors on the Deck of a Ship c.1926; £18) > Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985. Cf. The Tumbler 1920–23, Acrobats 1916–17, The Acrobats c.1921, The Acrobats 1940–59 and The Acrobats c.1957

Street Corner – study (aka One Way Street), c.1965. Pencil, 15 x 13.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Street Corner, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 32.5 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > private collection > private collection (by descent) > Crane Kalman Gallery (2015). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

Street Fight, A, c.1916. Pencil, blue chalk and gouache, 56 x 49.5. In the catalogue of the 1976 Liverpool exhibition this work, which is not signed and seems untypical of Roberts’s style, was titled Street Fighting during 1914–18 War and attributed to ‘Vorticist School’. It is not known on what grounds it was attributed to Roberts in the 1978 Sotheby’s sale. PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh (d. 1953) > ? > Professor and Mrs E. Boyland > Sotheby’s 7 June 1978 (£1,300). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Liverpool 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Street Games – study (aka Overbacks?), 1915. Pencil and ink, 28 x 16.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s Dec. 1968 > T. T. Andreae > Sotheby’s 13 May 1987 (estimate £4,000–£5,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971, Hayward Gallery 1974, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs

Street Gossips, see Gossips, 1968

Street Gossips on the Front Steps, see Gossips, 1968

(recto) Street Musicians, 1940s. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 17.5 x 10. (Is this Musicians c.1940?)
(verso) Fragment of Female Life Drawing, 1940s. Pencil, 18.5 x 9
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Street Scene, 1916–18. Pen, ink and watercolour, 18.8 x 13.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. Cf. Street Acrobats 1923

Street Scene, 1939? Oil painting. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1941. WR’s Cockney’s: A Street Scene had been destroyed by the date of this exhibition, so this picture may be Errand Boys 1939, which had not previously been shown in London and went on to be exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in 1942

Stretching Man (aka Standing Figure) – full-length study of, c.1920s? Charcoal and blue crayon, 47 x 32. PROVENANCE: Ernest Gye > Lt Cdr K. Methley > Bonhams 21 Feb. 1991 (£1,700) > ? > Bloomsbury Auctions 2 July 2009 (£2,200)

Strippers and Scrubbers – study, 1972 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 19 x 15. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Strippers and Scrubbers, 1972. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1972

Study, see Sarah Pregnant, pre-June 1919

Study in the War, see Gunners Pulling Cannons, Ypres, c.1918

R. Stulik Esq., 1920. Drawing/watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (10 gns)

Rudolph Stulik, Monsieur (aka Le Patron?), 1920. Oil on canvas. The Austrian chef Rudolph Stulik (1874–1938) was the proprietor of the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel at 1 Percy Street, London W1. His restaurant opened in 1910 and became a favourite haunt of Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis, Nancy Cunard and their literary friends. T. E. Hulme’s Poet’s Club, including the subsequent founders of Imagism, F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound, met there in 1910, and Wyndham Lewis launched the Vorticist magazine Blast there in 1914. Stulik acquired works of art in exchange for free meals. Both Lewis and Roberts produced decorations for the restaurant, and Roberts describes it in his posthumously published memoir ‘The “Twenties”’ and depicts the Vorticists meeting there in his The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915 (‘an imaginative evocation rather than an historically accurate record’ of the launching of Blast, which actually took place with a meal at the Dieudonné Restaurant in St James’s in July 1914 – Cork, Vorticism and its Allies). Stulik was described by his son-in-law James Audain as ‘a character. A superb cook, accomplished linguist and devout Catholic, he had been raised from an early age by the Jesuit Fathers in Vienna and had worked as a kitchen boy for Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria. He had graduated by way of Belgium, the H™tel de Paris, Monte Carlo and chef to the late Lord Kitchener in Egypt, to his present hotel . . . It had been patronised by royalty, notables of the stage and screen, and Americans visiting London were counselled “not to forget to sample the food at Stulik’s ‘Eiffel Tower’”’ (My Borrowed Life (Sidney, BC: Gray’s Publishing Co., 1962), p. 107). He was the model for M. Stutz, the proprietor of the Mont Angel, in the 1922 novel Piracy by Michael Arlen, another of his customers. The Tour Eiffel went bust and its contents were eventually auctioned in January 1938. Stulik died later that year. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923 (as Le Patron)? LOST

Summer, see Sun-bathing 1956

Summer Heat, see Heatwave – study, 1957

Summer Night – study (aka Lovers in the Park), c.1956–7. Pencil, squared, 12.1 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Lovers in the Park)

Summer Night (aka Lovers and inscribed ‘Dusk’), c.1956–7. Pencil, watercolour and charcoal, 36 x 52.5. ‘A satyr peers out of the foliage at modern lovers embracing’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Wilfrid Evill (Mar. 1958, 30 gns) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£44,450). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. Under the Trees c.1956–7

Sun-bath (?), date uncertain Watercolour and pencil, 35.6 x 48.3? PROVENANCE: Sold 1984 (£650)

Sun-bathers, see Sun-bathing 1931

Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park (aka The Siesta and Sun-bathers in Hyde Park), 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, squared, 15.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 25 Sept. 1992 (£880)

Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park (aka The Siesta), 1973 (dated). Oil on canvas, 41 x 51. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1992 (£9,900). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975, Reading 1983. Cf. Siesta 1957

Sun-bathers in Hyde Park, see Sun-bathers, Regent’s Park, 1973

Sun-bathing – study, 1931. Black chalk, 15 x 18. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Sun-bathing – study, 1931. Pencil, squared, 16.5 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Sun-bathing, 1931. Pencil, squared, 23.5 x 28.6. PROVENANCE: T. E. Lowinsky (collection stamp bottom right) > Raymond Mortimer > Lord Croft > Christie’s 4 June 1999 (£4,830). EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Council (2) 1947, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Sun-bathing – study (aka Sun-bathers), 1931. Watercolour and pencil, 25.5 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (1948, as Sunbathers). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Sun-bathers: colour study, 7 gns), Lefevre Gallery 1938 (as Sun-bathers, 10 gns)

Sun-bathing (aka Sun-bathers and Sea Bathers), 1931. Pen, ink and watercolour, 34 x 50. PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery > Contemporary Art Society (1942, as Sun Bathers, 15 gns) > Northampton Art Gallery (1956, as Sea Bathers). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Sun-bathing, 10 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942 (as Sun-bathers), CEMA tour 1944, CEMA tour (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965 (as Sun-bathing)

Sun-bathing (aka Sun-bathers), 1931. Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 112. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > David Hughes (by 1979) > Christie’s (1 July 1993) > Jonathan Marland. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (100 gns), Canada and USA 1935, Wakefield 1936 (£120), Hull 1936 (‘looks upon a section of humanity with swollen, vulgar bodies trimmed with beer and gramophone records’ – Hull Daily Mail, 1 July 1936), Pittsburgh 1936, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (120 gns), Royal Academy 1940 (as Sun-bathers: ‘Whether you like it or not, this is painting of great integrity, and its subject-matter provides one of the most complete illustrations of contemporary working-class life that exists’ – Herbert Read, The Listener, 11 Jan. 1940), Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Parkin Gallery 1976, Commonwealth Institute 1977, Hayward Gallery 1979, Nottingham 2006, Chichester 2007, Chichester (2) 2016. REPRODUCED: The Graphic, 7 Nov. 1931

Sun-bathing (aka Summer), 1956. Pen and ink, 18.9 x 13.3. One of four designs commissioned by Ernest Cooper for a ‘Four Seasons Callendare’, as the Worthing 1972 catalogue called it – Spring Lambing (aka Spring), Sun-bathing (aka Summer), Huntsmen (aka Autumn) and Christmas Party (aka Winter). Cooper regularly used William Roberts’s drawings on a ‘healthy eating’ theme for business calendars for his London Health Centre Ltd in the 1950s. The calendar’s dates correspond to the year 1957, so it is likely that it was produced at the end of 1956. The set was ‘repeated as a calendar by Sarah and John [Roberts] in the 80s’ (Gillian Jason Gallery) and again by the William Roberts Society for 2002. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (assumed to be part of lot 114, ‘four signed drawings in pen and black ink, framed as one’, which with the cover artwork for the LHC’s Towards Better Health catalogue sold for £5,980) > Duncan Miller Fine Arts > Ruth Artmonsky > ? > Christie’s 13 June 2002 (£3,760 for the four calendar drawings). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Sunday Night, c.1942. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Sunflower, c.1961. Pencil, 17.5 x 12.5, with colour notes. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Sunflower, c.1961. Pencil, 18 x 13, with tonal note. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Sunflowers, The – study, c.1961. Pencil, squared, 17.8 x 11.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Sunflowers, The – study, c.1961. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 43.2 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Bought at Exeter 1971 > Christie’s 18 Nov. 2005 (£9,360). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973

Sunflowers, The, 1961. Oil on canvas, 183 x 122. PROVENANCE: WR > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1992 (£41,800) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1961, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 132

Suppliants – study, 1925–6. Charcoal, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 55)

Suppliants, 1925–6 (two figures supplicating a third). Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘Feisal would sit down at the end of the tent facing the open side, and we with our backs against the wall, in a semicircle out from him. The slaves brought up the rear, and clustered round the open wall of the tent to control the besetting suppliants who lay on the sand in the tent-mouth, or beyond, waiting their turn’ (ch. 19). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 54). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 115

Surprised (aka Surprise), c.1927. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1927, Venice 1928 (as Sorpreso), London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as Surprise, 50 gns)

Susanna and the Elders – study, c.1926 (signed and dated 1923 in ballpoint – cf. the comment on dating in ballpoint re Loading Ballast 1927. Despite this post-dating, it is suggested that the date for this study follows that of the oil on canvas of this subject, 1926. Pencil, 17.8 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12670). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012

Susanna and the Elders (aka Susanna or Susannah), c.1926. Oil on canvas, 42.5 x 32.5. ‘There was a man living in Babylon whose name was Joakim. He married the daughter of Hilkiah, named Susanna, a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord … That year two elders from the people were appointed as judges … These men were frequently at Joakim’s house, and all who had a case to be tried came to them there. When the people left at noon, Susanna would go into her husband’s garden to walk. Every day the two elders used to see her, going in and walking about, and they began to lust for her … together they arranged for a time when they could find her alone. Once, while they were watching for an opportune day, she went in as before with only two maids, and wished to bathe in the garden, for it was a hot day. No one was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. She said to her maids, “Bring me olive oil and ointments, and shut the garden doors so that I can bathe.” They did as she told them: they shut the doors of the garden and went out by the side doors to bring what they had been commanded; they did not see the elders, because they were hiding. When the maids had gone out, the two elders got up and ran to her. They said, “Look, the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us. We are burning with desire for you; so give your consent, and lie with us. If you refuse, we will testify against you that a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away.” Susanna groaned and said, “I am completely trapped. For if I do this, it will mean death for me; if I do not, I cannot escape your hands. I choose not to do it; I will fall into your hands, rather than sin in the sight of the Lord”’ (Daniel 13:1–23 (NRSV)). But the elders’ false testimony is exposed, and they are executed in Susanna’s place. PROVENANCE: WR > Mr and Mrs Neville Burston (bought from the artist in 1965) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1927 (as Susannah), Southport 1928, Manchester 1928 (as Susannah, 20 gns), Eastbourne 1928, Plymouth 1929 (‘The subject is one for a Raphael, or a Titian, but the modern artists apparently sees no beauty in the nude figure, and he has not made the least attempt to define beauty of shape. Studies of anatomy, foreshortening, and perspective, to say nothing of composition and purity of colour, have all been sacrificed in the pursuit of some indefinable object’ – Western Morning News, 21 January 1929), Derby 1929, London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as Susanna, 30 gns), Tate Gallery 1965

Susanna or Susannah, see Susanna and the Elders, c.1926

Swan, The – study, 1977 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 19 x 15.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Swan, The, 1977. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1980, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Swan Upping, c.1925. Watercolour and pencil, 24 x 16. Swan Upping is the traditional census, treatment and allocation of swans on the River Thames which takes place in July each year. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 4 Mar. 1983 (£1,200) > ? > Sotheby’s 7 Mar. 1990 (£3,116) > Albemarle Gallery > ? > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2022 (£15,300). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Spink & Son 1993, Parkin Gallery 1996

Swans, The – study (aka Family Outing), 1972 (signed and dated). Pencil, crayon and watercolour, 19.0 x 1.5. PROVENANCE (as Family Outing): Campbell & Franks > private collection, UK (1979) > Lyon & Turnbull 27 Oct. 2023 (£4,032)

Swans, The, 1972 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 61. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > ? (1973) > Christie’s 24 Nov. 2016 (£43,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973

Swans, Fishermen, Bathing Belles, 1960. Pencil, 13.5 x 17.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Swimmer, The, c.1927–9. Black chalk, 29.5 x 16.5 (image 14.5 x 13). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Swimmers, The, 1978 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 55.9 x 40.6. Based on Swimming-bath Scene 1973. PROVENANCE: Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold > ? (Mar. 1992) > Christie’s 20 Oct. 2022 (£32,760)

Swimmers Resting, c.1925. Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 35.5. PROVENANCE: Montague Shearman > Sir Hugh Walpole > ? > Christie’s 19 Jan. 1947 > Mrs Minnie Wingate > Sotheby’s 11 Dec. 2006 (£36,000) > Offer Waterman > ? > Christie’s 26 June 2014 (£48,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (15 gns), Redfern Gallery 1940

Swimming, c.1935? Black chalk, 20 x 12.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Swimming Bath, The, see Swimming Lesson, The, c.1929

Swimming Bath, The – study, c.1959. Pencil, 17.2 x 7.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12660)

Swimming Bath, The (aka The Swimming Pool), c.1959. Pencil and watercolour, 50.2 x 21.6. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay Gallery > Norah Meninsky (1969) >Luke Gertler > Gillian Jason Gallery > The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art at the Lightbox, Woking. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Woking 2011, Royal College of General Practitioners 2016, Cookham 2019, Bedford 2022. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 18

Swimming-bath Scene, 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 19 x 13.5. This is probably the work exhibited as ‘Swimming-bath scene’ among the ‘Vignettes’ at Reading in 1983, although it is a little larger than the overall range of sizes from 6.5 x 4.5 cm to 18.0 x 12.5 cm quoted for such works in the Reading catalogue. It is also presumably the watercolour ‘Swimming Bath Scene 1975’ exhibited by Gillian Jason Gallery in 1993, when the date seems to have been misread and the size quoted, equivalent to 19 x 43.2 cm, seems to indicate an improbable format. Roberts revisited this composition five years later to produce the oil The Swimmers in 1978. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

(recto) Swimming Baths. Pencil, 17 x 7
(verso) Snakes, c.1953 – study for Brush Up Your Jungle zoo poster c.1953
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Swimming Coach, The – study, c.1964? Pencil, squared, 16.5 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Swimming Coach, The, c.1964? Pencil and watercolour, 43 x 30. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. Cf. Teaching the Crawl 1957

Swimming Dog, The, see Broken Branch, The, 1978

Swimming Lesson, The – study, c.1929. Pencil, 12.7 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12689)

Swimming Lesson, The – study (aka The Swimming Bath), c.1929. Watercolour, ink, chalk and charcoal, squared, 25.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: William Darby Gallery > ? > Sotheby’s 26 May 2010 (estimate £5,000–£7,000; unsold) > Sotheby’s 10 Sept. 2019 (£27,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Hamet Gallery 1971

Swimming Lesson, The (aka The Swimming Bath), c.1929. Oil on canvas, 51 x 41. PROVENANCE: Bought at London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 > niece of previous owner > Christie’s Melbourne 6–7 May 2003 (A$96,350). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as The Swimming Bath, 50 gns), Birmingham 1929, Hamburg 1932? (as Schwimmunterricht), Melbourne and Sydney 1933

Swimming Pool, The, c.1934. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (8 gns). Cf. People Swimming c.1925, Swimming c.1935, The Swimming Lesson c.1929

Swimming Pool, The, see Swimming Bath, The, c.1959

Swing, The, c.1942. Pencil and watercolour, 18 x 10.6. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973, Leicester Galleries (2) 1945

Swings, The – study, 1967–8 (signed). Pencil, watercolour and gouache, squared, 15.2 x 19 cm. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > ? (1976) > Christie’s South Kensington 14 July 2016 (£8,750)

Swings, The (aka The Playground), 1967–8. Oil on canvas, 61 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > the Hon. James Dugdale (31 Mar. 1973) > private collection, UK > E. & R. Cyzer 20th Century Art > ?. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1968, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

Taking the Oath, 1920. Pencil, ink and wash, 25.4 x 25.4. This is one of the few pictures by Roberts with overt political content, but its significance is obscure. It appears to show people being sworn into the ‘Black and Tans’, the paramilitary force specially recruited (from unemployed veterans among others) to suppress rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The map of Ireland on the wall is captioned ‘British possessions marked red.’ The men on the right are holding up their commission papers. PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.127-1964). REPRODUCED: Malvern, Modern Art, Britain and the Great War, p. 132

Talk about Buddha – study, and three figure studies, 1930. Inscribed ‘Talk about Boudha’. Red chalk, squared, 18.5 x 24 (main image 11.5 x 15). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Talk about Buddha, 1930 (signed twice). Red chalk and pencil, squared, 23 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£3,220). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972

Talk about Buddha, A, 1930. Pencil, 33 x 45. The picture probably records a social occasion with Roberts’s friend Paul de Zoysa, who was active in Buddhist circles. PROVENANCE: Private collection, London. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (15 gns), London Artists’ Association (4) 1933, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Tarts – study for etching, c.1925. Inscribed ‘Tarts’. Pencil, 15 x 12.5 (image 11 x 8.5). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Tarts, c.1925. Etching (signed and inscribed in the plate), 11.4 x 8.9. PROVENANCE: Dobson estate > Gillian Jason Gallery (by November 2013). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976

Taylors [sic] Workshop, The, date unknown – suggest 1957. Watercolour and black chalk, 45.5 x 31.5. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 2 Mar. 1988 (£2,750)

Tea Break – study (aka Works Canteen), c.1955. Pencil, squared, 13 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Tea Break, c.1955–60 – suggest 1955. Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 40. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Sir David Scott 1973 (£525) > Sotheby’s 19 Nov. 2008 (£22,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971. Cf. Tea Break c.1941

Tea Garden, The – study (aka Park Café), 1928. Pencil, 20.7 x 28.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12628)

Tea Garden, The – study (aka Park Café), 1928. Pencil drawing. PROVENANCE: Contemporary Art Society > Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham (1940/41). This is probably the Roberts drawing Park Scene presented to the CAS by Miss A. F. Brown in 1940/41. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Abdy Galleries 1931, London Artists’ Association (2) 1933 (8 gns)?, Arts Council 1977

Tea Garden, The – study (aka Park Café), 1928. Crayon and watercolour, 25.4 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Dec. 1934, 10 gns) > Miss Honor Frost > Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (bought from the Evill Collection, 1966). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (as Park Café, 8 gns), London Artists’ Association (2) 1933 (8 gns)?, St Helens 1939, Morecambe and Heysham 1939, Leicester Galleries 1944, Cairo 1945, Brighton 1965, Sheffield 1998

Tea Garden, The (aka Park Café), 1928. Oil on canvas, 51 x 61. PROVENANCE: Colonel F. E. B. Manning (acquired c.1930) > ? (by descent) > Sotheby’s 12 June 2017 (£848,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (2) 1929, London Artists’ Association (1) 1931 (40 gns)

Tea Party, c.1934. Pencil, 16.5 x 24.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Tea Party, The (aka At Daphne’s?), c.1944. Pencil and watercolour, 33 x 53. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 23 May 1984 (£2,000) > ? > Court Gallery (2011). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945?, Worthing 1972

Tea Room, The – study, 1937–8. Pencil, squared, 22 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Tea Room, The (aka The Tea-shop), 1937–8. Oil on canvas, 82.5 x 75. The image shows a scene in one of the J. Lyons & Co. tea-shops, which were inexpensive and enormously popular in the first half of the twentieth century; the waitresses, in their distinctive uniforms, were known as ‘Nippies’. The chain was in decline when Roberts reproduced one of the studies for this picture in his Paintings 1917–58 in 1960, which may explain why there and when exhibited by Anthony d’Offay in 1969 the studies were nostalgically entitled The Good Old Days. Even in the late 1960s William Roberts still frequented J. Lyons’ establishments: a pencil sketch, The Joke 1969, was drawn on the back of a bill from Lyons’ The Restful Tray, Marble Arch – ‘one of William Roberts’s customary outings of an evening’ according to John Roberts’s catalogue notes for Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986. PROVENANCE: Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (120 gns), Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: William Roberts and Jacob Kramer, p. 11

Tea-shop, 1937–8. Drawing. (Is this Good Old Days 1937–8?) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Tea-shop, The, see Tea Room, The, 1937–8

Teaching the Crawl – study, 1957. Pencil, squared, 16.5 x 11.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Teaching the Crawl, 1957. Pencil and watercolour, 43 x 31.3. ‘[T]his drawing is one of several suggested by my swim practice at the Prince of Wales baths [in Kentish Road, London NW5]; a place where Sickert also liked to do his swimming’ – Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 10. Cf. The Swimming Coach c.1964?

Teaching the Crawl, c.1960. Pencil and watercolour, 44.5 x 54.6. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Teaching the Parrot, see Parrot, The, 1977

Temptation of St Anthony, The – study, 1950–51. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12702)

Temptation of St Anthony, The – study, 1950–51. Watercolour and pencil, 35 x 26.3. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£4,638). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1967, Worthing 1972, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Temptation of St Anthony, The, 1950–51. Oil on canvas (‘painted on a canvas supplied by the Arts Council’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue), 150 x 114. According to his biographer Athanasius, when the later St Anthony (c. 251–356) decided to give up his possessions and devote himself to God, ‘the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not endure to see such a resolution in a youth, but endeavoured to carry out against him what he had been wont to effect against others.’ After various stratagems had failed, ‘at length putting his trust in the weapons which are “in the navel of his belly” and boasting in them – for they are his first snare for the young – he attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day … The one would suggest foul thoughts and the other counter them with prayers: the one fire him with lust the other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting. And the devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Antony. But he … passed through the temptation unscathed’ (Vita Antonii 5, tr. H. Ellershaw, 1892). PROVENANCE: Purchased from the Royal Academy by Ernest Cooper (July 1951, £500) > Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1973 (£5,000) > Christie’s 27 Nov. 1997 (£19,550) > Tate Gallery (T07391, purchased 1998). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1951, Leicester Galleries (2) 1952, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Paris 1984, Serpentine Gallery 1985, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 117

Theatre, 1915. Oil on canvas. This work is referred to in Cork, Vorticism and Its Allies, p. 85; however, its size is unknown. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Doré Gallery 1915. LOST

(recto) Theatre I – study, 1915. Pencil on paper, squared, 22.5 x 15.5
(verso) Theatre II. Pencil, ink and watercolour, 22 x 17
PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s Dec. 1968 > Rodney Capstick-Dale Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1969, Hayward Gallery 1974, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980, Osborne Samuel 2014. REPRODUCED: Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs (recto and verso)

Theatre III – study, c.1915. Pencil, 22 x 16. PROVENANCE: Charles Handley-Read > ? > Christie’s 15 Mar. 1985 (estimate £4,000–£6,000; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1969, Hayward Gallery 1974, Parkin Gallery 1976, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Albemarle Gallery 1989, Osborne Samuel 2014. REPRODUCED: Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs

They Walked on the Sea (Jesus calling Peter) – study (aka Walking on the Water), 1977–8. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 19.0 x 14.6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Walking on the Water)

They Walked on the Sea (Jesus calling Peter), 1978. Oil on canvas, 76 x 63. ‘And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus’ (Matthew 14:25–9). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1978

Thoughts (aka Sarah), 1929. Oil on canvas, 50 x 39.5. PROVENANCE: Leeds art dealer > Sir Barnett Stross MP. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (45 gns), Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 15 (as Sarah), where it is dated 1930

Three Adults and a Child, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper torn from a notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Three Figures, c.1925. Black chalk, 14 x 21.3
(recto) Curled-up Cat and Seated Woman (Paring?), 1920s. Black chalk, 14.7 x 22.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Study of Three Masked Figures, c.1932 – a preliminary drawing for The Masks c.1932. Black chalk
(recto) Maynard and Lydia Keynes, 1932 – study for John Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopokova 1932. Red chalk, 17.2 x 22.8. The device of two people looking at a single document is also used in The Artist and His Wife 1975. But in the final version of the Keynes double portrait the book is moved to Keynes’s right hand. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958
PROVENANCE: WR > Geoffrey Keynes (1965) > Milo Keynes > Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (bequeathed 2010). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Three Singers, see Mediterranean Folk, 1934

Through the Hatch, c.1958? Pencil, 15.2 x 10.2. John Roberts comments in the Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 catalogue, ‘Artists mounting the ladder of fame. As you mount, you endeavour to keep down those below you. [My interpretation – JDR]’. PROVENANCE: With Court Gallery 2023. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990 (where undated, though ‘c.1958’ has at some point been pencilled on to the gallery’s label)

Tiddler Fishing (aka Fisher Boys), 1972 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 76.2. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 15 May 1985 (£8,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 12 Nov. 1986 (£8,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1973 (as Tiddler Fishing). REPRODUCED: The Royal Academy Illustrated 1973, p. 10 (as Tiddler Fishing; size given as 30 x 24 inches, 76.2 x 70.0 cm); Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 33 (as Fisher Boys, though some of the fishers appear to be female). Cf. Tiddlers 1973

Tiddler Fishing, see Tiddlers, 1973

Tiddlers – study (aka Fishing) 1973 (signed and dated). Pencil, crayon and watercolour, 18.5 x 14.0. PROVENANCE (as Fishing): Campbell & Franks > private collection, UK (1979) > Lyon & Turnbull 27 Oct. 2023 (£3,780)

Tiddlers, 1973 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 64. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1974 (as Tiddlers), Reading 1983 (as Tiddler Fishing). REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue. Cf. Tiddler Fishing 1972

Tip, The, 1944–5. Pencil and watercolour, 17.5 x 12.8. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby's 2 May 1990 (£3,096) > ? > Wiederseim Associates, Inc., Phoenixville, PA, 20 Dec. 2023 ($1,875). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal British Artists Society 1949 (£30), Worthing 1972, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992, Spink & Son 1993 (when the waiter was said to be a self-portrait by Roberts, though he looks too old for this to be plausible)

Tip, The, 1944–5. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 52.5 x 33.5. PROVENANCE: William Roberts (1965). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965

To the Lord of Song, c.1919 (also dated 1913–14 in the National Portrait Gallery 1994 catalogue). Pencil on paper, 10.0 x 9.8. The drawing shows Osbert, Sacheverell and Edith Sitwell presenting a laurel wreath to the Russian singer and actor Feodor Chaliapin at the Savoy Hotel. David Garnett’s account of the event (in The Familiar Faces (London: Chatto & Windus, 1962), p. 24) describes William Walton (b. 1902) as being present, and this would indicate a date of later than 1918, as that was the year when Sacheverell and Walton met at Oxford. It is possible that the presentation of the wreath was to mark the return of Chaliapin to London following the end of the First World War. Honor Clerk in 1994 catalogue notes that neither Edith’s nor William Roberts’ presence is recorded and ‘the drawing is probably based on an account given to Roberts later.’ Sacherevell and Osbert Sitwell purchased and commissioned work from William Roberts in the period 1919–21, and it seems likely that the drawing was made at that time. PROVENANCE: Estate of Sarah Roberts > British Museum (1995). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1994

Toast, The, 1923. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Hamet Gallery 1971, Maclean Gallery 1981. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue (in black and white on the cover)

Toast, The, 1965. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12737). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Toast, The, 1965. (The ‘toast’ is at the Royal Academy, whose president in 1956–66 was Sir Charles Wheeler.) Pencil and watercolour, 43 x 31. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, New Grafton Gallery (1) 1975

Today and Yesterday (aka Look Nobby and Look Nobby, the Civilisation We Died For), 1971 (signed, dated and inscribed ‘Look Nobby, the civilisation we died for’). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 37 x 47. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 20 July 1988 (as Look Nobby, the Civilisation We Died For, estimate £2,000–£3,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971 (as Look Nobby), Hamet Gallery 1973 (as Today and Yesterday)

Toe Dancer, The, 1914. Ink and gouache, 72 x 54. ‘The subject was derived from the dances performed by the wife of Stewart Gray, the hunger-marcher, at their home in Ormond[e] Terrace in the autumn of 1914. Stewart Gray is the bearded figure towards the top left and appears again on the right’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. Alexander Stewart Gray (1862–1937), whom his London Times obituary described as ‘the original “hunger march” leader in this country’, was a Scottish solicitor who in 1908 led a march of unemployed men from the north of England and later fasted near Windsor Castle to draw attention to their plight. In 1914 he rented 8 Ormonde Terrace, by Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park, where he accommodated young painters and sculptors, including WR. In his Let There Be Sculpture (1940), Jacob Epstein described how ‘there was a life class at which I sometimes drew, and sometimes the artists, among others Roberts and Bomberg, a mysterious Indian artist, and some models, would have parties’ (ch. 11). PROVENANCE: Captain Lionel Guy Baker > Victoria & Albert Museum (E.3786-1919). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1915, Tate Gallery 1965, Hayward Gallery 1974, Newcastle 2004, Rotterdam 2011, Cambridge 2015. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 26

Toeing the Line, c.1962. Pencil and watercolour, 37.5 x 25. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Tommies Filling Their Water Bottles with Rain from a Shell Hole, Aug. 1918. Ink, pencil, chalk and watercolour, 50.8 x 38.1. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (1169). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy (2) 1919, Manchester 1920 (‘A strange, mechanical, Wells-like conception, one might almost think of machines behaving like men’ – catalogue description), Leeds 1928. REPRODUCED: Malvern, Modern Art, Britain and the Great War

(recto) Tops, c.1932. Pencil,18.5 x 24
(verso) The Masks – study, c.1932? Pencil, with red-chalk figure from Tops (recto) in reverse, 24 x 18.5. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Early Years, cover
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Toque, The (aka Sarah in a Green Hat – Reading 1983), 1939 (painted shortly before the war). Oil on canvas, 43 x 33. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Oxford 1940, Redfern Gallery 1942, Leicester Galleries 1943, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984

(verso) Torso
(recto) Football (study for Goal, c.1968), c.1968. Drawing, 53 x 15.7
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Torture – study – pencil, 19 x 17. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 48)

Torture – study. Pencil, 28 x 19 (annotated by Roberts, ‘not used’). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 47)

Torture, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Unused tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (annotated by Roberts, ‘Page 416’): ‘They kicked me to the head of the stairs, and stretched me over a guard-bench, pommelling me. Two knelt on my ankles, bearing down on the back of my knees, while two more twisted my wrists till they cracked, and then crushed them and my neck against the wood. The corporal had run downstairs; and now came back with a whip of the Circassian … and then he began to lash me madly across and across with all his might, while I locked my teeth to endure this thing which lapped itself like flaming wire about my body’ (ch. 80). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 46). EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988

Towards Better Health – study, c.1953. Pencil and watercolour, squared for transfer, 18.4 x 13.3. A draft of a cover design for the ‘Complete Descriptive Catalogue’ of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. The final version of this artwork (see below) was used on the cover of a 1953 catalogue, and it is probable that this drawing was produced at around this date. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Hamet Gallery > A. Morrill (1972) > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2000 (£3,200, with two other works) > ? > Christie’s 1 Mar. 2006 (£2,400). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Exeter 1971 (where dated 1943)

Towards Better Health, c.1953. Pen, black ink, watercolour, gouache and pencil, 36.5 x 26.5. Cover design for the ‘Complete Descriptive Catalogue’ of Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. The catalogue – a copy of which is in the Wellcome Institute library, London, and contains no other illustrations by Roberts – was printed in 1953, and it is probable that this drawing was produced at around this date. Compared with the study (see above), the final artwork places greater emphasis on the loading of healthy, fresh food, and the earlier free-flowing title has been replaced by block lettering that conforms more to the style of the lettering on other London Health Centre publications: Bread: The Whole-Wheat Way to Health (c.1953), Good Food for Growing Children (c.1948), Salads for All Seasons (c.1953) and A Simple Guide to Heathy Food (c.1953). PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Zwemmer Gallery > Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (£5,980, inc. four signed drawings in pen and black ink, framed as one). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (it is likely that this was one of a group of ‘5 cover designs for publications for The London Health Centre’ exhibited then), Milan 1973

Tower of Babel, The, 1922. Charcoal, 19.7 x 14.6. Given WR’s association with the Sitwells at this time, this work may relate to Osbert Sitwell’s poem ‘“Therefore is the Name of It Called Babel”’ (1916). ‘And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they [the families of the sons of Noah] journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth’ (Genesis 11: 1–9). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12705). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993, Tate Britain 2012

Horace Townsend, Esq., c.1937. Drawing. A Horace Alfred Townsend, from Eastbourne, entered the Bartlett School of Architcture, London, in 1925–6 and registered as a student with the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1926; editions of the RIBA ‘Kalendar’ for the 1930s record him as living at various addresses in Cornwall, Brentford, and London NW1. If he was Robert’s sitter, then this is probably the same work that was exhibited as The Architect in 1939. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (15 gns)

Towpath, The, c.1957? Pencil, 14.2 x 19.5. ‘Perhaps related to The Canal Fishers, 1957’ – John David Roberts, Cambridge 1985 catalogue. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Towpath, The, 1969. Pencil and watercolour. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1969

Trafalgar Square – study, 1926. Pencil, 19.1 x 22.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12726). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Trafalgar Square, 1926. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4. PROVENANCE: R. H. Spurr > Dr H. Widdup > Redfern Gallery > John Christopherson > Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (£30,800). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1927, Redfern Gallery 1963, Redfern Gallery 1964, Tate Gallery 1965

Trafalgar Square – study, 1952. Pencil, 18 x 12.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989

Trafalgar Square – study, 1952. Watercolour, 46.7 x 32.5. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£9,277) > ? > Campo & Campo, Antwerp, Belgium (October 1998) > ? > Bonhams 28 Nov. 2006 (£12,000) > ? > Sotheby’s 12 July 2013 (£37,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972

Trafalgar Square, 1952. Oil on canvas, 196 x 157. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (purchased 1967). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1953, Bradford 1954, Tate Gallery 1965, Melbourne 2007. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 119

Tramp, The, c.1945. Pencil and watercolour, 10.2 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12722). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Tramp, The, c.1945. Pencil and watercolour, 35 x 53. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 1973 > ? > private collection, New Zealand. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Southampton 1967, Parkin Gallery 1976, Worthing 1972

Tramps Under the Bridge, 1979 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 27.5 x 37.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992 (where dated 1970; although no gallery label was noticed on the work in the Tate store, this seem otherwise to tally with the catalogue note that ‘The dog is the centre of interest.’)

Travelling Cradle, The – study (aka The Builders’ Cradle and The Builder’s Cradle), 1920. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour, squared, 38.1 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: WR > ? Keenan > R. L. Keenan (son of the previous owner) > Sotheby’s 19 May 1982 (as The Builders’ Cradle, £3,200) > private collection, London, until 1987 > Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Van Day Truex Fund, 1988 (as The Builder’s Cradle, 1988.4.2)). EXHIBITION HISTORY (as The Builder’s Cradle): New York 1984, New York 1987

Travelling Cradle, The (aka The Builder’s Cradle), 1920 (also dated as 1918). Pen, ink, pencil and wash, 58.8 x 43. PROVENANCE: Leicester Galleries > Southampton City Art Gallery (1957, Frederick William Smith Bequest Fund). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1920 (‘Mr. William Roberts’s “Travelling Cradle” … is one of the most interesting works in the exhibition. He has, by his formula, given an almost musical uniformity to the figures without robbing them of life. They are all working together; and it is their collective effort that he has drawn, and made a curious, complex, yet harmonious beauty out of it’ – The Times, 7 June 1920), Independent Gallery 1921, Leicester Galleries (1) 1957, Arts Council 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Arts Council (2) 1980, Estorick Collection 2004. REPRODUCED: Estorick Collection 2004 catalogue, pl. 28

Tree Cutters, 1977. Drawing, 16 x 18.3. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989. Cf. Tree Felling c.1969

Tree Felling (aka The Sawyers), c.1944. Watercolour and pencil, squared, 11.5 x 18. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (estimate £1,000–£1,500; unsold). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Worthing 1972. Cf. Sawing Wood 1930 and Tree Felling (aka The Foresters) c.1969

Tree Felling – study (aka Woodcutters), c.1969 (signed). Pencil and watercolour, 17.8 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Phillips 2 Nov. 1999 (£2,100). Cf. Tree Cutters 1977

Tree Felling (aka The Foresters), c.1969. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 6 Nov. 1981 (£3,080) > private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970, Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts. Cf. Tree Cutters 1977

Tree Pruners – study (aka Almond Picking), 1972 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 19.0 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Almond Picking)

Tree Pruners, 1972 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 40 x 30. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1973 catalogue

Trooping the Colour – study, 1958–9. Pencil. 20.3 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12645)

Trooping the Colour – study, 1958–9. Pencil, 30.5 x 46.3. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (estimate £3,000–£4,000) > Sotheby’s 21 June 1995 (£2,415) > ? > Bonhams 22 Nov. 2000 (estimate £1,000–£2,000) > ? > Christie’s 4 Dec. 2002 (£4,935) > Piccadilly Gallery (2004) > Bloomsbury Auctions 13 Nov. 2008 (estimate £6,000–£8,000; unsold) > Dreweatts 18 May 2010 (£7,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Artmonsky Arts 2001, Newcastle 2004

Trooping the Colour – study, 1958–9. Watercolour, 20.5 x 30.2. PROVENANCE: Ms Elizabeth Gawne (1965) > the Roberts family > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Trooping the Colour, 1958–9. Oil on canvas, 182.9 x 274.3. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper (who hung it in the juice bar of the Church Street, W8, branch of his London Health Centre) 1959 > Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1962 (unsold) > Tate Gallery(T03248, purchased 1981). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1959 (£1,500), Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Royal Academy (2) 1977, National Portrait Gallery 1986, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 128. ‘Mr. Roberts’s “Trooping the Colour” is the sort of painting which possibly no visitor [to the 1959 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition] between now and August will admit to liking; it is rigid, schematic, and harsh in colour, and the figures are characteristically puppet-like. But what subject could be more fitted to puppet-like depiction than soldiers on ceremonial parade, what patterns better adapted to geometric regularity than those made by serried ranks of identical uniforms, marching feet, and sloping bayonets? The painting, in a word, triumphs by logic; it is a complicated, highly skilful achievement which makes the most of an heraldic subject in heraldic manner’ – The Times, 1 May 1959. But see the Daily Mail of 1 May 1959 for controversy about this painting, and Roberts, My ‘Trooping the Colour’. The Daily Mail of 2 May 1959 contained an Emmwood cartoon of two Guardsmen in bearskin caps standing in front of Roberts’s picture at the RA, with one of them saying, ‘ … not only seventeen errors of dress Fanshawe, but I’ll wager the feller painted it needs a blawsted hair-cut.’

Tropical Sea, 1942–4 (dated c.1941 Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). Pencil and watercolour, 36.2 x 53.3. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > Christie’s 26 Oct. 1994 (£4,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969. This is a version of Bathers I and Bathers II in which the right-hand figure has lost her bangle but has gained a darker (Polynesian?) skin colour – perhaps an allusion to Gauguin which is reflected in the new title.The image of the dangling fish was used in a similar way in The Birth of Venus 1954

Troubadours, c.1919 (signed and inscribed ‘Troubadours’). Pencil, ink and watercolour, 33.7 x 23. PROVENANCE: Jessie Dismorr > R. H. M. Ody > ? > Yale Center for British Art (B1988.20.2). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1956, Hamet Gallery 1971, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Truth and Nothing But the Truth, The – study (aka The Whole Truth and Court Scene with Judge), 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 17.5 x 12.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Truth and Nothing But the Truth, The (aka The Whole Truth), 1978. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40.5. (Is this the same as The Whole Truth aka Court Scene with Judge 1978, or a study for it?) PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1979. Cf. The Accused 1971

Try-on, The – study for Dressmakers, 1931. Pencil, 22 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Try-on, The – study for Dressmakers, 1931. Pencil, 25.4 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: T. E. Lowinsky (collection stamp bottom right) > Raymond Mortimer. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (3) 1931 (12 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942 (as Dressmakers), British Council (2) 1947, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980. REPRODUCED: Anthony d’Offay 1980 catalogue

Trying on a Hat – study (aka Woman with Hat), 1946–8. Pencil, 18.4 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12735, as Lady in a Hat). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Trying on a Hat, 1946–8. Pen and ink and watercolour, 36.2 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Oct. 1949, £15; inventoried as The Hat Shop) > Miss Honor Frost > Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (bought from the Evill Collection, 1966). Cf. The Hat c.1958

Tryst, The, 1959. Pencil and watercolour, 50 x 35. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mrs Nora Meninsky. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Tub, The, see Ritual Bath, c.1947

Tumbler, The, 1920–23. Drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923. Cf. Street Acrobats 1923

Tunnel, the Underground, The (aka The Underground), date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Tunnel’ and ‘The Underground’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Miss Jane Tupper-Carey, Portrait of (aka Head of a Woman), c.1922. Oil on canvas, 41 x 31. Rose Marie ‘Jane’ Tupper-Carey (1897–1982) was one of five children of Canon Albert Darell Tupper-Carey (who for a time was a chaplain in Monte Carlo and in 1938 became chaplain to King George VI) and his wife, Helen (née Chapman). A botanist, after taking an MSc, from 1922 she was a researcher under Professor J. H. Priestley in the Department of Botany in the University of Leeds; then in 1930 she moved to Cambridge, where she collected and translated literature on plant genetics for the Imperial Bureau of the Board of Agriculture. (She herself knew French, Italian German and Swedish.) In 1932 she married the Cambridge mathematician A. E. (Albert) Ingham (1900–67) – previously (1926–30) Reader in Mathematical Analysis at the University of Leeds – who in that same year published his classic work The Distribution of Prime Numbers. Her sister Edith was married to author and publisher Michael Sadlier (author of Fanny by Gaslight), son of the educationalist Sir Michael Sadler, who owned a number of works by Roberts. Sadler himself was a friend of her father and vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds in 1911–23. PROVENANCE: Presented to the Contemporary Arts Society by St John Hutchinson, 1924 > gift of CAS to Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, 1928. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Gallery 1923 (‘Properly to appreciate [Roberts’s] powers the visitor should look first at such things as the “Portrait of Miss Tupper-Carey” … not because they are the best things in the exhibition, but because they make evident the fact that the treatment of form in some of the other works is deliberate, for the double purpose of racy comment and articulate design’ – The Times, 9 Nov. 1923), Tate Gallery 1965 (as Head of a Woman – ‘The artist does not remember who the sitter was’ – 1965 catalogue)

TV – study, 1960. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 25.4 x 45.7. PROVENANCE: Mr and Mrs Jarosz (from Hamet Gallery 1971 exhibition) > ? (by descent) > Christie’s 22 Jan. 2020 (£30,000) > Jerwood Collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971

TV, 1960. Oil on canvas, 100 x 180. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by the Art Gallery and Industrial Museum, Aberdeen. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1960, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester 2007. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964, p. 23

Two Figures Crouching, Two Figures Reaching into a Basket, 1925–6. Pencil, 18 x 11.5. Unused sketch for a drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. One of the ‘crouching’ figures is in fact lying on what may be a mat or carpet; the other is seated on the ground with arms resting on knees: the image is perhaps a response to ‘We ate half-a-dozen dates, a frigid comfort, and curled up on the wet carpet. As I lay there in a shiver, I saw the Biasha guards creep up and spread their cloaks gently over Feisal, when they were sure that he was sleeping’ (ch. 18). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 49 (part))

(verso) Two Figures at a Table, c.1923. Black chalk, 16.8 x 12.8
(recto) Figures Dressing and Stretching, c.1923. Black and red chalk, 15 x 11.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Two Girls Holding Flowers, see Picking Petals, c.1960

Two Men Flying a Kite, 1965–6. Pencil and watercolour, 17.6 x 11.8. this drawing was probably part of the preparatory work leading up to the oil painting The Kites exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1966. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Hon. James Walston (1973) > ? > private collection (2020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973

Two Mothers with Children on a Street Corner, see Argument, An – study c.1926

Two People Seated, date uncertain. Pencil, 4.5 x 6. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(verso) Two Sailing Boats, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 6 x 9.5
(recto) Woman with Spotted Dress, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Two-step, c.1915. Oil on canvas? EXHIBITION HISTORY: Doré Gallery 1915. LOST

Two-step I – study, 1915. Pencil, 30 x 23. PROVENANCE: Tate Gallery (T01100). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, Tate Britain 2012., Cambridge 2015 REPRODUCED: Roberts, 8 Cubist Designs

Two-step II – study, c.1915. Pencil, watercolour and gouache, 30.2 x 22.8. PROVENANCE: British Museum (from Anthony d’Offay Gallery, 1986). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1969, Hayward Gallery 1974 (‘Robert’s “Two-Step” of 1915 had a demonic formal language, a fragmentization or atomization of space, and a color-gamut of bright orange, pink, scarlet and lilac which in combination were far beyond the range of most English painters then or since’ – John Russell, New York Times, 14 Apr. 1974), New York 1977, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Tate Gallery 1980, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1984, Stuttgart 1985, Royal Academy 1987, Stuttgart 1987, Hanover 1996, Newcastle 2004, Durham, NC, 2010, Cambridge 2015. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 28

Two Women with Children, date uncertain. Pencil, 12.5 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(verso) Two Women with Colour Notes on Clothes, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
(recto) Profile of Woman in Jacket Annotated with Colour Notes, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Two Women Playing with a Cat, c.1943–4. Pencil, 15.3 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12718)

Two Women Playing with a Cat, c.1943–4. Pencil, squared, 21.5 x 17.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(recto) Umbrellas, c.1965. Pencil, squared, 18.2 x 13
(verso) Fragment of a female nude life study, c.1965. Pencil, 13 x 18
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Umbrellas, see Shower, The, c.1964

Under the Trees – study, c.1956–7. Pencil, 17.8 x 12.1. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12691). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Under the Trees, c.1956–7. Watercolour with black and coloured chalks, 51 x 34. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£9,277). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. Cf. Summer Night c.1956–7

Underground, The (aka Rush Hour in the Tube) – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 19 x 15.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Underground, The (aka On the Tube), c.1970. Pencil and watercolour, 38.0 x 30.5. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Sotheby’s 22 July 1987 (as On the Tube; £4,290). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971 (where dated 1964–5). REPRODUCED: Cover of part-work History of the Twentieth Century Our World Today, editor in chief A. J. P. Taylor, No. 114 (London: Purnell, 1970)

Underground, The, see Tunnel, the Underground, The, date uncertain

Unemployed, see Poor Family, The, 1921–3

Unknown subject, 1919. One of three panels for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel painted in autumn 1919. ‘Many years later he [William Roberts] stated that the third panel, now lost, was “more abstract” than The Diners. He did not record the subject and Sarah Roberts has no very distinct memory of the painting. But she thought it might possibly have depicted “couples in bed together, because an awful lot of bedding went on upstairs at Tour Eiffel”’ – Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England, p. 245.

Usurer, The, 1923 (signed). Coloured chalks, 24.8 x 18.4, squared. PROVENANCE: J. B. Manson > ? > Sotheby’s 13 Dec. 1967 (£100) > A. d’Offay. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923

Valley of the Sirhan, The, 1925–6. Pen and ink, 28.5 x 19.5. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: ‘[T]he plague of snakes which had been with us since our first entry into Sirhan to-day rose to memorable height, and became a terror. In ordinary times, so the Arabs said, snakes were little worse here than elsewhere by water in the desert: but this year the valley seemed creeping with horned vipers and puff-adders, cobras and black snakes. By night movement was dangerous: and at last we found it necessary to walk with sticks, beating the bushes each side while we stepped warily through on bare feet’ (ch. 47). PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 56). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 76

(recto) Vandals, The – study, 1968. Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 13
(verso) Fragment of a female nude life study, c.1968. Pencil, 18.5 x 13
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993? (as Bird Nesting or The Vandals and dated c.1970, though this work is more likely to have been the c.1966 study for Bird Nesting)

Vandals, The (aka Birds’ Nests), 1968. Oil on canvas. Dated to 1968 on the basis of the indistinct date on the watercolour study Collecting Birds Eggs (q.v.). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1970. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 24. Cf. Bird Nesting c.1966

Vaulting Horse, The – study (aka At the Gym), 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 38 x 31.2. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 20 Oct. 2022 (as At the Gym, £18,900)

Vaulting Horse, The, 1974 (dated). Oil on canvas. 76.5 x 63.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 44, where dated 1975. (Cf. The Vigilantes 1974, ibid., pl. 43, where there is also a discrepancy between the date in the caption and the date on the painting.)

Vegetarian, The [Ernest Cooper], suggest 1950s. Inscribed ‘The Vegetarian’. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11.5 x 7.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Vengeance of Odysseus, The – study, 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 18.5 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Cambridge 1985

Vengeance of Odysseus, The – study, 1974. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 26 x 21. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Vengeance of Odysseus, The, 1974 (dated). Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 62.9. A scene from Book 22 of the Odyssey, in which Odysseus, helped by his son and two faithful servants, slays the suitors who have been besieging his wife during his wanderings after the Trojan War (see The Return of Ulysses c.1913). Leodes clutches Odysseus’ knees and begs for mercy, but his head is struck off (ll. 310 ff.). The minstrel Phemios, who has been forced to entertain the suitors, wonders whether to beg for mercy or to flee (ll. 330 ff.). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975, Reading 1983, Arts Council (1) 1987, Albemarle Gallery 1989. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 42

Vengeance of Odysseus, The – study, 1979. Pencil and watercolour, squared, 19 x 13.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Vengeance of Odysseus, The (aka The Gladiators), 1979. Oil on canvas, 61.0 x 50.8. When this was first exhibited, in 1993, Roberts’s son named it The Gladiators; however, the picture does not seem to depict a gladiatorial arena. Instead, its subject may be another moment in Book 22 of Homer’s Odyssey, following that shown in The Vengeance of Odysseus 1974. Before Odysseus, his son and his two faithful servants attack the suitors, they discover the goatherd Melanthios supplying the suitors with weapons. The two servants seize him by his (long?) hair (l. 187), and he is trussed up and hoisted to the roof beams to watch what follows. After the suitors have been slaughtered and the women who slept with them have been killed, Melanthios (who had previously insulted and kicked the disguised Odysseus) is taken outside, where his nose, ears, hands and feet are cut off and his genitals fed to the dogs (ll. 473–6). It is perhaps the moment before this mutilation that Roberts has shown. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Victory – study, 1925–6. Pencil, 28 x 19. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 58)

Victory, 1925–6 (eight naked men marching with banners). Pen and ink, 27 x 21. Tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 59). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1927. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, p. 75

Vigilantes, The – study, 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 15.2 x 12.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Vigilantes, The, 1974 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 29.6 x 24.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985

Vigilantes, The, 1974. Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 63.5. ‘Perhaps suggested by a Western film, of which he [WR] was fond’ – John Roberts, note in the Tate archive. PROVENANCE: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (1975) > ? > Bonhams 17 Mar. 2010 (£19,200). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1975. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 43 (where, though it is clearly dated as 1974 on the canvas, it is identified as 1975 in the title description)

Vortex Pamphlets, The – cover artwork, 1958. Pen and ink on paper, 22.5 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Vorticist Composition, see Figure Studies for Composition, c.1916–17

Vorticist at the Hotel de la Tour Eiffel, A – study, c.1958. Pencil, 17.5 x 13.3, squared for transfer. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12739). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Vorticist at the Hotel de la Tour Eiffel, Adesign for a Vortex pamphlet never published, 1958 (also dated c.1961 in Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England). Pen and black ink, 22.8 x 17.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985. REPRODUCED: Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England. Cf. The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel 1961–2

Vorticist Whale, The, 1956 (signed ‘WR’). Pen and ink, 18.4 x 11.4. Satire on Wyndham Lewis for Roberts, The Resurrection of Vorticism (Vortex Pamphlet No. 1). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12667). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Tate Britain 2012

Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915, The – study, 1961–2. Pencil, 15.9 x 18.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12704). EXHIBITION HISTORY:Tate Britain 2012

Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915, The – study, 1961–2. Pencil, watercolour and chalk, 19.1 x 22.4. PROVENANCE: Yale Center for British Art (B1987.23). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hayward Gallery 1974, New York 1977, Anthony d’Offay Gallery 1986. REPRODUCED: Cork, Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England. Cf. A Vorticist at the Hotel de la Tour Eiffel 1958

Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915, The, 1961–2. Oil on canvas, 183 x 213.5. Before the First World War the restaurant of the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel at 1 Percy Street, London W1, became a favourite haunt of Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis, Nancy Cunard and their literary friends. T. E. Hulme’s Poet’s Club, including the subsequent founders of Imagism, F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound, met there in 1910, and both Lewis and Roberts produced decorations for the restaurant. Roberts described it in his posthumously published memoir ‘The “Twenties”’, and he commented on evenings at the restaurant in his article ‘Wyndham Lewis, the Vorticist’ in The Listener on 21 March 1957: ‘In my memory la cuisine Française and Vorticism are indissolubly linked.’ But, as Richard Cork noted in the Hayward Gallery 1974 catalogue, this group portrait – showing (seated, from left to right) the Vorticists Cuthbert Hamilton, Ezra Pound, William Roberts, Wyndham Lewis, Frederick Etchells (holding the first issue of Blast) and Edward Wadsworth, with (standing) fellow Vorticists Jessica Dismoor (left) and Helen Saunders, the waiter (Joe) and the Tour Eiffel's proprietor, Rudolph Stulik – is ‘an imaginative evocation rather than an historically accurate record’ of the launching of Blast, which actually took place with a meal at the Dieudonné Restaurant in St James’s in July 1914. The Tour Eiffel went bust and its contents were eventually auctioned in January 1938. Stulik died later that year. The picture was used on the cover of the Penguin anthology Imagist Poetry, ed. Peter Jones, in the 1970s. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by the Tate Gallery (T00528, Chantrey purchase, 1962). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1962, Hayward Gallery 1974, Royal Academy (2) 1977, Sheffield 1989, Newcastle 2004, Rovereto 2012, Manchester 2017. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 126

Wagon Lines, The, – study for ‘Feeds Round!’ Stable-time in the Wagon-lines, France, 1922 (also dated 1916–18, Hamet Gallery 1971). Inscribed ‘The Wagon Lines’. Pencil, 15.2 x 17.1. PROVENANCE: Fischer Fine Art > ? > Bonhams 6 March 2007 (£3,600). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Parkin Gallery 1976. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Waiting in the Café, c.1921. Pencil, 15.5 x 13. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

(recto) Waiting Room, The, c.1965. Pencil and watercolour, 36.8 x 24.1
(verso) Life drawing (unfinished)
PROVENANCE: Roberts Sims > Camden Fine Art

Walking Delegates, The, 1919 (signed and inscribed). Pen, black ink and watercolour, 35 x 24. PROVENANCE: Michael Sadler > ? > Osborne Robinson (bought from Redfern Gallery 1940) > Christie’s 9 Mar. 1984 (estimate £2,000–£3,000; unsold?) > ? > Sotheby’s 7 Nov. 1990 (£6,600) > ? > Christie’s 5 Mar. 1999 (£16,100) > ? (private collection, UK) > Christie’s 26 June 2017 (£100,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery (1) 1940, Redfern Gallery (2) 1940, Hamet Gallery 1971, Entwistle Fine Art 1989

Walking on the Water, see They Walked on the Sea, 1977–8

Walking Wounded, c.1917. Pen, ink and sepia wash. PROVENANCE: Charlotte Robinson (purchased c.1985)

William Wallace, see American, Portrait of an, 1929

War Baby, The – study (aka Family Scene), 1946 (indistinctly signed). Pencil, watercolour and crayon, 14.5 x 19.0. PROVENANCE: Hamet Gallery > Sir Alec Guiness (19 Dec. 1972) > ? (early 2000s) > Sotheby’s 13 June 2018 (£15,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?, Hamet Gallery 1973

War Baby, The (aka After the Bath and The Baby), 1946. Oil on canvas, 50 x 60. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mr and Mrs Neville Burston (1965) > private collection. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Group 1949, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958

War Celebrations, 1919. Pen, pencil, ink and watercolour, 41 x 35.6. PROVENANCE: Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York > Salander–O’Reilly Galleries, New York > Maclean Gallery, London > Thyssen Foundation, Madrid > Sotheby’s 3 July 2002 (£62,140) > Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert > ? (2002) > Christie’s 20 June 2016 (£434,500). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cork, A Bitter Truth

War Scene, c.1919. Watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper, 29 x 47. PROVENANCE: Dr and Mrs Andrew Causey. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hanover 1996. REPRODUCED: Blast. Vortizismus – Die erste Avantgarde in England 1914–1918, ed. Karin Orchard (Berlin: Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1996), p. 264

Warming the Steps, c.1972. Pencil, 18.5 x 11.2. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980

Wash, The, see Bath-night, 1929

Washing Day, The, 1966–7. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 61. PROVENANCE: Private collection (London). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1967, Hamet Gallery 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973, Maclean Gallery 1980. REPRODUCED: Cayzer, William Roberts

Washing Day – study, 1976 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 20 x 15. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Washing Day (aka The Clothes Line?), 1976. Oil on canvas, 61 x 51. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1976, Reading 1983

Watching a Raid, c.1918. Pencil and watercolour, 35.4 x 25.3. PROVENANCE: Ulster Museum, Belfast

Water Polo – study, c.1938. Pencil, squared, 15.5 x 24.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Water Polo, 1938. Pencil and coloured washes, 30 x 50 PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery (1942) > Contemporary Art Society > Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (1944). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue

Water Wings – study, 1933. Pencil, 15.9 x 19.7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12721)

Water Wings, 1933 (signed). Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 51. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 14 Nov. 1984 (mistitled as Water Polo, £8,800) > Christie’s 6 Mar. 1987 > Stanley J. Seeger > Sotheby’s 14 June 2001 (£40,750). EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (4) 1933, Lefevre Gallery 1938 (30 gns), Redfern Gallery 1942

We Want to be Done Together, 1932 (inscribed with the title). Red and black chalk, 19 x 28. ‘Maynard Keynes and Lopokova commissioning a double portrait’ – Reading 1983 catalogue. ‘This may have been a preliminary idea for the portrait, but it is more likely to be a satirical comment on the words of the title which must have been spoken’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Gillian Jason Gallery (2014) > private collection (2020). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 (dated c.1935), Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Wedding, The, c.1920. Pen, ink, watercolour and crayon, 38.4 x 50.7. PROVENANCE: J. P. Cochrane > Christie’s 17 Dec. 1948 > Ernest Cooper > Sir Frederick Gibberd > Sotheby’s 3 Nov. 1982 (£6,300) > Museum of Modern Art, New York (668.1983) – gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and the Lillie P. Bliss Collection (by exchange). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Mansard Gallery 1920 (according to Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, p. 12, but not in the exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work, pl. 10 (dated 1918)

Wheels 1919, cover design (using Gun Drill c.1919) for Wheels no. 4, 1919. Wheels, published annually from 1916 to 1921, was a modernist anthology of verse edited by Edith Sitwell, primarily as a vehicle for her and her brothers Osbert and Sacheverell, in opposition to the Georgian Poetry volumes edited by Edward Marsh. Other poets who appeared in Wheels included Nancy Cunard (whose poem in the first issue beginning ‘I sometimes think that all our thoughts are wheels / Rolling forever through the painted world’ gave the series its title), Iris Tree and Aldous Huxley, and the 1919 volume was dedicated ‘to the memory of Wilfred Owen, M.C.’, whose work it introduced, a year after he had died in the First World War. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 53

Wheels 1919, two endpieces for anthology of poetry published by Osbert Sitwell, 1919 (shows dart players and targets). REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 53

Wheels 1921, 1921. Cover rough for Wheels no. 6. Pencil and red wash, 19 x 11.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Wheels 1921, 1921. Cover artwork for Wheels no. 6, the last of the annual anthologies of poetry edited by Edith Sitwell. (See Wheels 1919.) The catalogue for the Bloomsbury Auctions sale of the library of the late Francisco Gil de Borja e Menezes on 11 Dec. 2008 (lot 256) suggested that the image represents Edith Sitwell.

Which is the Way to Barcelona? – study, 1970. Pencil, squared, 19 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Which is the Way to Barcelona?, 1970 (signed and dated)). Pencil and watercolour, 47.0 x 34.0. In the 1960s and ’70s John David Roberts made trips to Spain to attend the International Course of Guitar and Vihuela held each year by Emilio Pujol initially in Lérida, and to travel in the country and sometimes to North Africa after the course. He published his notes on these trips as Guitar Travels (Valencia, 1977), and in his account of his 1966 trip he imagines Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo encountering a combine harvester on the road in 1960s Spain (pp. 49–50). Here William Roberts seems to imagine that the knight and his companion instead encounter Roberts’s son. ‘I carry a guitar and vihuela (as in ’69)’ – John Roberts, note in the Tate archive. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12643). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1980. REPRODUCED: Williams, William Roberts, p. 137 (where dated 1979)

Whist, c.1937. Chalk drawing. Probably related to the initial sketch that was expanded to become The Card Players. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery 1938 (25 gns), Gloucester 1938 (25 gns)

White Mud Guards, see Errand Boys, 1939

Whole Truth, The, see Truth and Nothing But the Truth, The, 1978

William Roberts ARA (cover illustration for Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue), 1965. Pen and ink, 24 x 18, printed on yellow on the catalogue cover. Three panels show WR as a student, as a gunner during the First World War, and receiving his diploma as an Associate of the Royal Academy from the RA’s president in 1958. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990

Wimpy Bar, The – study, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 18.5 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Wimpy Bar, The, 1975 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5. PROVENANCE: Christie’s 7 June 1985 (£6,500) > ? > Sotheby’s 14 Oct. 1987 (£7,700) > ? > Peter Nahum, London > Stanley J. Seeger > Sotheby’s 10 Dec. 2013 (£56,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1976

Window-cleaning Studies, c.1928. Pencil, 24.5 x 17. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Window Dressers, c.1957. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Window Dressers, see Window Dressing– study, c.1957

Window Dressing – study (aka Window Dressers), c.1957. Pencil, 17.8 x15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12649). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Window Dressers)

Window Dressing, c.1957. Pencil and watercolour, 49 x 34.5. PROVENANCE: WR (1965) > ? > Sotheby’s 10 Mar. 2004 (£9,360). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969

Windy Day, A – study, 1941. Pencil, 9.5 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Windy Day, A – study, 1941. Pencil, squared, 11.5 x 14.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Windy Day, A – study (aka A Covered Punt), 1941 (dated c.1943 Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969). Pencil, 19.8 x 24. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, Cambridge 1985

Windy Day, A (aka Boating Party, Boating on the Thames, Boating Scene on the Thames and Canoeing), 1941. Oil on canvas, 33 x 43.5. ‘One of a group of small paintings and watercolours made during the war at Marston on the outskirts of Oxford showing scenes along the River Cherwell’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue. PROVENANCE: Redfern Gallery > Wilfrid Evill (July 1942, £42 10s.) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£121,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942, Tate Gallery 1952, Contemporary Art Society 1955, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965. Cf. The Punt c.1943

Reginald Wingate, General Sir, 1923. Sanguine, 34.4 x 29.9. Sir Francis Reginald Wingate (1861–1953) was a British general and administrator in Egypt and Sudan. As director of military intelligence he served in the campaigns of 1896–8 which resulted in the reconquest of Sudan, including the Battle of Omdurman. In December 1899 he succeeded Lord Kitchener as Governor-General of the Sudan and sirdar of the Egyptian army. From 1917 to 1919 he was High Commissioner in Egypt in succession to Sir Henry McMahon. He was less successful there than in his administration of Sudan, and was made a scapegoat for the political riots that plagued the country, but he refused to resign even after he was officially replaced by Lord Allenby. In 1920 he was created Baronet Wingate of Dunbar, in the County of Haddington, and of Port Sudan, but he never held another public or military office after retiring from the army on 1 Feb. 1922. When T. E. Lawrence commissioned this picture for Seven Pillars of Wisdom he wrote to Roberts, ‘Do you think you could draw a courtly old man, broken and disappointed now because his career ended badly, a man who was never much more than a butter-merchant and great-man’s friend, even in his best days, but whose administration was so successful that it gave him confidence, and for a while he believed himself great … Please be very gentle with him, if you do him. He’s not so much a butterfly as a ghost of one, a thing by no means to be broken on a wheel’ (21 Oct. 1922); and later, ‘It’s amusing that Wingate wants to see you before he goes off the drop at your hands. Will you feel very much on your guard during the interview?’ (16 Feb. 1923). PROVENANCE: Hamill and Barker (1962) > Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, Texas, 1962, National Portrait Gallery, 1988. REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Winner, The
(aka The Boxing Match), 1971. Pencil, signed 13.3 x17.2. PROVENANCE: Albemarle Gallery > ? > Christie’s 28 Aug. 2003 (£1,058) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading Art Gallery 1983, Artmonsky Arts 2001

Winner, The, 1971 (dated). Pencil and watercolour, 46.7 x 49. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester (1) 1972?, Hamet Gallery 1973

Lord Winterton, 1923. Pencil. Commissioned by T. E. Lawrence for Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Edward Turnour (1883–1962) was born in London and educated at Eton and at New College, Oxford, where he was still an undergraduate (reading law) when in Nov. 1904 he became Conservative MP for Horsham, Sussex, in a by-election. In 1907 he succeeded his father as 6th Earl Winterton, remaining as an MP (until 1951) as his title was an Irish one. In the First World War he served with the Sussex Yeomanry in Gallipoli, with the Imperial Camel Corps in Egypt, and eventually with T. E. Lawrence in the Hejaz; he was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was later parliamentary under-secretary for India, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, deputy to the Secretary of State for Air and Paymaster General. Six foot four tall, he continued to favour the high-buttoned jacket and narrow trousers of his youth. It took T. E. Lawrence several months to persuade Winterton to sit for a portrait. Eventually, in Feb. 1923, Lawrence wrote to Roberts, ‘It’s V. G. to hear Winterton has yielded up his fort … and I hope that the taking-over proceedings will not be as fearful as you expect. He’s hot, is Winterton: and he’ll be an impatient and unconscionable sitter.’ REPRODUCED: Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Wire-pullers, The (aka Wire-pulling), c.1956. Pen and ink, 13.5 x 8.5. Design for Roberts, A Press View at the Tate Gallery (Vortex Pamphlet No. 3). PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery 1990, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Wire-pulling, see Wire-pullers, The, c.1956

Wiring Party, The – study, see Second Defence System 1918–19

Wiring Party, The, 1918–19. Red chalk with grey wash, squared, 27.9 x 38.1. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 28 Sept. 1994 > Dr and Mrs Jeffrey Sherwin > Christie’s 21 Jan. 2020 (£395,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: New English Art Club 1919, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Estorick Collection 2004, Leeds 2009. REPRODUCED: Estorick Collection 2004 catalogue, pl. 21

Withered Root, The – study, 1927. Pencil, 20.3 x 14.0. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12736). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Britain 2012

Withered Root, The – book-jacket design for Rhys Davies novel published Robert Holden & Co., London, 1927 (book in National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum), 1927. Printed size 18.5 x 16.5. EXHIBITION HISTORY (printed jacket): Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992. REPRODUCED: Reading 1983 catalogue

Donald Wolfit as King Lear at the ‘Old Bedford’ – study, 1949. Watercolour and pencil, 16.4 x 13. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Donald Wolfit as King Lear at the ‘Old Bedford’ (aka King Lear), 1949. Oil on canvas, 50 x 39. The actor-manager Donald Wolfit (1902–68) leased the Bedford Theatre at 122–133 Camden High Street, north London, and presented his Shakespearean repertoire there from 31 Jan. to 21 May 1949; King Lear opened on 7 Mar., with the Fool, also depicted, played by Bryan Johnson. (This was in fact the ‘New Bedford’: the ‘Old Bedford’ music hall, which occupied part of the same site, had been demolished in 1898. The ‘New Bedford’ was itself demolished in 1969.) PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ms Elizabeth Gawne > Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries 1950, Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965, Reading 1983

Wolves and Men, see Dogs of the Beni Hillal – an Arabian Legend, 1925

Woman, A, see Sarah, 1927

Woman, Portrait of a: The Artist’s Wife, Sarah Kramer, 1919. Pencil and wash, 44.9 x 33.2. PROVENANCE: Charles Lambert Rutherston > Manchester City Art Galleries (1925). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Manchester 1926, Tate Gallery 1965. REPRODUCED: Studio 102 (1931), p. 313

Woman, Portrait of a, see Millie Kramer, suggest 1925

Woman, Portrait of a, date unknown – suggest 1949. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal British Artists Society 1949 (£50)

Woman with Balloons, date uncertain. Annotated with colour note. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Woman Bathing Child, see Women Bathing a Child, 1939

Woman with Beads, Portrait of a, c.1934. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935

Woman Brushing Another’s Hair, c.1939–40. Pencil and watercolour, 17.8 x 8.9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12712)

Woman Carrying Child, c.1937. Red chalk, 13.3 x 9.4. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Woman Carrying Child, c.1937. Red chalk, 14 x 9.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Woman Carrying a Sheaf of Corn, Back View of a, c.1908. (‘This is like a detail from an early sixteenth-century painting by some artist such as Andrea del Sarto’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue.) Pen and ink and wash, 18 x 9. PROVENANCE: W. P. Robins > Victoria & Albert Museum (E.491-1921). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965

Woman with a Cat, 1942 (signed in ballpoint). Pencil and watercolour, 11.4 x 17.8. ‘The woman is Sarah [Roberts] playing with her “stupid cat, Rufus”. Rufus was a ginger cat which Sarah found in a vegetable shop and which had been burnt in a fire’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue entry by John David Roberts. In fact JDR’s description of Sarah ‘playing with’ her cat is inaccurate, as she seems indifferent to it. JDR also notes in relation to this work, ‘In the 1940s Roberts further refined his technique of watercolour and produced some of his most impressive drawings, often shading with pencil over the watercolour.’ The unusual perspective taken by the artist in relation to the woman on the floor has some similarity to that of Indolence 1945. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12635). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985, Tate Britain 2012. Cf. the various versions of Woman Playing with a Cat c.1943–4, which are different compositions using a vertical format.

Woman and Her Cat, see Woman Playing with Her Cat, 1943–4

(verso) Woman with Crossed Arms and a Baby, date uncertain. Red chalk, 7.5 x 4.8
(recto) Girls with Plaits, date uncertain. Red chalk, 8.5 x 4.5
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Woman and Dog (aka Woman with Dog), 1939. Pencil, 14 x 9. PROVENANCE: Craigie Aitchison > Bloomsbury Auctions 26 Jan. 2102 (£950). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Woman and Dog (aka Woman with Dog and Beggar Woman), 1939. Pencil and coloured wash, squared, 53 x 28. The 1989 Albemarle Gallery catalogue refers to this as ‘a study for the oil’; however, there seems to be no other evidence for the existence of this oil. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (Dec. 1941, £20) > Bertram Roth > Sotheby’s 11 Nov. 1987 (£2,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Victoria & Albert Museum 1942, Cairo 1947, British Council (2) 1947, Albemarle Gallery 1989

Woman with Dog, see Woman and Dog, 1939

Woman Wearing Ear-rings, Portrait of a, see Sarah with Ear-ring, c.1934

Woman with Hat, see Trying on a Hat – study, 1946–8

(recto) Woman in Hat and Scarf, c.1940. Red chalks, 13.5 x 8.5
(verso) Woman Reading
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Woman with Headscarf* and colour notes, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 11 x 6.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Woman with Jar. Vignette, date uncertain. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(recto) Woman Knitting and Cat, c.1930. Black chalk, 22.5 x 14.5
(verso) Beach Scene, fragment
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Woman Picking Nuts (aka Olive Picking), c.1953. Pen and ink, 10 x 15. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd. Although exhibited as ‘Olive picking’ as one of ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ at Worthing in 1972, the shape of the leaves makes it more likely that it is nuts that are being gathered. It is is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder > ? (£1,800) > Bonhams Knightsbridge 22 Mar. 2023 (£8,287.50). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972, Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945 and listed as ‘A woman picking nuts’ but labelled ‘Olive picking’)

Woman Playing with a Cat (aka The Cat), 1943–4. Pencil and watercolour, 18 x 10. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Hamet Gallery 1973. Maclean Gallery 1980. Cf. Woman with Her Cat, 1940 – N.B. different format

Woman Playing with a Cat (aka Playing with Cat), 1943–4. Pencil, watercolour and coloured crayon, 35.6 x 17.8. PROVENANCE: Phillips 5 Mar. 1991 (£2,000) > ? > Christie’s 22 Nov. 1994 (£2,185)

Woman Playing with a Cat (aka Woman and Her Cat and Rufus), 1943–4. Black chalk with watercolour, squared, 53 x 31. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby’s 2 May 1990 (£5,149) > ? > Piccadilly Gallery 1999. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (2) 1945, Worthing 1972

Woman Playing with a Cat (aka Rufus), 1943–4. Oil on canvas, 45 x 37.5. ‘The woman is Sarah playing with her “stupid cat, Rufus”. Rufus was a ginger cat which Sarah found in a vegetable shop and which had been burnt in a fire’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue entry for Woman with a Cat 1942. PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Mr and Mrs F. P. Neill. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Leicester Galleries (1) 1958, Tate Gallery 1965

(verso) Woman Reading
(recto) Woman in Hat and Scarf, c.1940. Red chalks, 13.5 x 8.5
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Woman Reading, see Reading of Poetry, A, 1965

Woman with Red Collar, c.1942. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Woman Seated, c.1929. Watercolour and drawing. EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (10 gns)

Woman Seated in a Chair, 1919. Watercolour and pencil, 56 x 38 cm. PROVENANCE: Charles Lambert Rutherston > Manchester City Art Galleries (1925)

Woman with Scarf, date uncertain. Inscribed ‘The Market’. Pencil, 11 x 7. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

(recto) Woman on Sofa, Cat and Mirror, date unknown – 1937–8? Pencil, 23 x 17
(verso, lower half) Artist and Easel – fragment of an abandoned version of The Artist at His Easel with a Painting of John and Sarah, c.1937–8
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Woman Standing, see Sarah Pregnant, pre-June 1919

Woman Standing, c.1920. Black and red chalk. EXHIBITED: Chenil Galleries 1923 or 1925?

(verso) Woman’s Head – fragment of life drawing, c.1957. Pencil, 6.7 x 15.3
(recto) Father Time, c.1957. Pencil, 13 x 4.5. Design for the cover of Roberts, Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (2001)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986

Women Bathing a Child – study, 1939. Pencil, 18.4 x 13. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Women Bathing a Child – study, 1939. Pencil and watercolour, 18.1 x 10.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12706, as Bathing the Baby – study)

Women Bathing a Child (aka Woman Bathing Child and Bathing the Baby), 1939. Pencil and watercolour, 53.5 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Wilfrid Evill (May 1945, £20) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby’s 16 June 2011 (£30,000). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cairo 1947, British Council (2) 1947, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965

Women with a Bunch of Flowers, see Spring Flowers, – study, c.1959

Women and Children on Bicycles, see Cyclists – study, 1943–4

Women Drinking, c.1916 (signed and inscribed with title). Pencil, 33 x 24. PROVENANCE: Phillips, 21 Mar. 1986 > The Reid Gallery > Magdalen College Junior Common Room Art Fund > Peter Nahum / Leicester Galleries > ?

Women Gathering Seaweed (aka Seaweed Gatherers), c.1953. Pen and ink, 12.5 x 15. A design produced for Ernest Cooper’s London Health Centre Ltd and one of the ‘7 designs for tailpieces in a catalogue’ exhibited at Worthing in 1972. It is not known in exactly what catalogue this drawing was used. PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper> Sotheby’s 3 Mar. 1999 (lot 120, with 12 other drawings, £10,925) > Abbott & Holder. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Worthing 1972 (as Seaweed Gatherers), Abbott & Holder 1999 (where dated c.1945)

Women Listening to a Recorder Player – study, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 11.3 x 15.2. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Women Listening to a Recorder Player, 1978 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 35.0 x 46.6. ‘We do not know the artist’s title for this watercolour. At Antony d’Offay it was called Women listening to a recorder player, but it is clear they are not listening!’ – Cambridge 1985 catalogue, where listed as ‘Untitled’. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Anthony d’Offay Gallery (2) 1980, Cambridge 1985

Women Playing Cards, 1975 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 36.5 x 46. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Women Playing with Cats, c.1919? (Dated as 1913 when exhibited, but stylistically looks later – notice the treatment of the hands, for example.) Ink and watercolour, 28.9 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Michael A. Tachmindji (1956) > ? (from Hamet Gallery, 1971) > ? (by descent) > Bonhams 18 Nov. 2020 (£325,250). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1956 (as no. 186, ‘Drawing 1913’, according to the Hamet Gallery 1971, catalogue, but in fact no. 72 and there were only 81 works in the 1956 exhibition), Hamet Gallery 1971. REPRODUCED: Hamet Gallery 1971 catalogue

Women Railway Porters in Wartime – study, c.1943. Pencil and watercolour, 19 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Women Railway Porters in Wartime, c.1943 (commissioned 1941). Watercolour, 37.1 x 51.6. PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD1701). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Whitechapel Gallery 1952, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003

(recto) Woman with Reversed Scarf, date uncertain. Red chalk, 13 x 8.5. Inscribed ‘Kerchief reversed’
(verso) Fragment of life study – seated figure with head in hand, date uncertain. Pencil, 9 x 13
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

(recto) Woman with Spotted Dress, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 10 x 6.2
(verso) Two Sailing Boats, date uncertain. Pencil on lined paper from notebook, 6 x 9.5
PROVENANCE
: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Women, Baby, Guitar, suggest 1930. Pencil, 14 x 9. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Woodcutters, see Tree Felling, c.1969

Works Canteen, see Tea Break, c.1955

Workman with a Spade (aka Man with Spade), c.1935. Black chalk, 13 x 8.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983 Cambridge 1985

Workman’s Family, see Bath-night – study, 1929

Workmen, see French Peasants c.1928

Wrestlers, The – study, 1979 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, squared, 17 x 14. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Wrestlers, The, 1979 (signed and dated). Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

Wrestlers, see Wrestling Match, The, 1976

Wrestling Match, The – study, 1976 (signed and dated). Pencil, squared, 15.2 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993 (as Wrestlers)

Wrestling Match, The, 1976 (signed and dated). Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 40. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Wrestling Scene (aka Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle I), with colour notes, and Group of People, 1934. Two drawings on the back of a wrestling programme (11.8 x 16.5 ), with date noted as 22 June 1934: pencil, 8 x 8 and 7 x 9 cm. Although exhibited in Dulwich 1985 as a study for Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle 1934, the sketch appears to represent general research into wrestling subjects by Roberts. The drawing is made on the back of a wresting programme annotated 22 June 1934 which lists five bouts but none of them involving either Rabin or Black Eagle. Also, the sketch is a very different composition from that of Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle, and its colour notes do not correspond to that picture. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Dulwich 1985 (as Sam Rabin versus Black Eagle I)

Young Man, Portrait of a, c.1912. Pencil, 30 x 25. PROVENANCE: Private collection, London

Young Man, Portrait of a, c.1942. Oil on canvas. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Redfern Gallery 1942

Young Man, Portrait Study of a, c.1920. Red chalk, 29.1 x 23. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 16 June 1976 > ? > private collection, South Africa > AAG Auctioneers, Amsterdam, 20 Nov. 2020 (€2,850)

Young Woman, Portrait of a, see Elsie, 1922–3

Zambesi, The, see Boat, The, 1960

Zonnebeke, 1918 (signed; title inscribed lower right). Watercolour and pencil, 35.2 x 24.8. Zonnebeke is a village in west Flanders, Belgium, which was obliterated by bombardment during the First World War. German positions there were captured by Allied troops during the Battle of Menin Road in late September 1917. PROVENANCE: Mayor Gallery / Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert > private collection, London

Zoo, The (aka The Monkey) – study, 1977. Watercolour, 25 x 20. PROVENANCE: Private collection (USA). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983

Zoo, The (aka The Monkey), 1977. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1978, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986


Life drawings


From 1925 to 1960 Roberts taught a life class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. During that time he made many life drawings, some of which he kept and some of which were kept by his students (the latter group including drawings made on the edge of students’ own work, as here). Being undated (and unsigned), these drawings are difficult to integrate into the chronology of the catalogue and so are listed below. Where dates are given, these are based on the dates at which Roberts’s students acquired them from his class.

Some life drawings were subsequently cut up and the versos reused by Roberts for studies in his own artistic practice, and these life-drawing fragments are documented in the main body of the catalogue.

Ten pencil life drawings, 38 cm x 28 cm (two of them with watercolour wash added), ‘made at various dates between 1935 and 1959’, were exhibited as a group in Roberts’s 1965 Arts Council retrospective, and of two of these (pencil only) were shown at the Parkin Gallery in 1976 and, along with one of those with watercolour, at the Hamet Gallery in 1971. They are probably among the drawings from the estate of John David Roberts held in the Tate store in 2014, as noted below, but is it not possible to identify them with certainty.

‘The drawings of the nude figure by Mr. William Roberts are interesting as showing that the tubular convention of this artist is not due to incapacity to draw the forms of nature.’ – The Times, 26 Nov. 1926

Female life study, 1920. Pencil and pink wash heightened with body colour, 37.5 x 27.3. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1962

Female life study, c.1935. Pencil, 21 x 12. PROVENANCE: Henry Trivick, Bourne End > Julian Lax

Female life study. Pencil, 37.7 x 22.7. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester (1981, with assistance from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Funds)

Female life study, face, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, full length, standing on one leg. Pencil, 37.5 x 23.0. PROVENANCE: Anthony d’Offay > Ivor Brake > Ian Posgate > private collection, UK

Female life study, with hand on head, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, with hand raised, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, head, shoulder and arm, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, leaning. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, with long hair. Pencil, 37.5 x 21.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, in profile on padded seat. Pencil, 37.5 x 27.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, reading a newspaper. Pencil (with red marks), 37 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, sitting, 1946–7? Pencil, 19 x 13.3. PROVENANCE: WR > pupil at Central School of Arts and Crafts > Christie’s 13 Dec. 1999 (£391, with pencil sketch Male life study, standing 1946–7?)

Female life study, sitting, 1946–7. Pencil, 31.5 x 24. PROVENANCE: WR > student at Royal College of Art (sic) c.1946–7 > previous owner’s wife > Christie’s 13 June 1997 (£863)

Female life study, sitting. Pencil and watercolour, 37 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Female life study, sitting. Pencil, 37 x 27. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting. Signed lower right and verso; inscribed on verso ‘Bought by R. E. S. Wilson from the artist’s wife’. Pencil and watercolour, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Private collection > Duke’s Fine Art Auctions 29 Apr. 2022 (£360 + fees)

Female life study, sitting (incomplete), 1956. Two figures: one, almost complete, in red chalk; the other, incomplete, in pencil; overall size 44 cm x 30 cm. Inscribed in an unknown hand ‘DRAWN FOR C. KNIGHT BY WILLIAM ROBERTS at L.C.C. Central School of Arts and Crafts Feb. 1956’ with an arrow pointing from the inscription to the pencil drawing, presumably indicating that the chalk drawing was by a student and the pencil drawing was Roberts’s demonstration of how it should appear. PROVENANCE: Golding Young, Lincoln, 25 May 2022 (£280 + fees) > private collection, UK

Female life study, sitting on a chair, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, sitting on the floor, in profile. Pencil, 37 x 27. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, sitting on the floor, propped on arms, c.1926. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Savile Gallery 1926 (‘The drawings of the nude figure by Mr. William Roberts are interesting as showing that the tubular convention of this artist is not due to incapacity to draw the forms of nature’ – The Times, 26 Nov. 1926). REPRODUCED: Drawing and Design 2, 7 (Jan. 1927), p. 1

Female life study, sitting on the floor, propped on arms, one knee bent, 1937. Pencil, 28 x 38. PROVENANCE: Collection of Central St Martin’s Museum (drawing done for student Margaret Levetus)

Female life study, sitting, with hands on seat. Pencil on paper, 34.3 x 27.9. PROVENANCE: Sale at unknown auction house, 30 June 2005

Female life study, sitting, three-quarter front, upper body, 1927–8 (with annotation ‘Drawn by William Roberts 1927–28 – when teaching at the Central School of Arts & Crafts Londn’ added at some point by an unknown hand). Pencil on paper, approx. 33.5 x 30. PROVENANCE: Drawing done for unknown student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts > ? > private collection, UK > Gorringe’s, Lewes, 12 Mar. 2019 (£750)

Female life study, sitting, three-quarter rear view. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, standing, 1946–7. Pencil and yellow wash, 37.9 x 27.3. PROVENANCE: J. L. Douthwaite > British Museum (donated 1958). EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Museum 1969

Female life study, standing. Pencil, 38 x 23. PROVENANCE: Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York > ? > Sotheby’s 30 Apr. 1986 (as Standing Nude, £356)

Female life study, standing. Pencil, 38 x 23, signed. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 6 Oct. 1993 (as Standing Female Nude; estimate £600–£800, unsold)

Female life study, standing. Pencil on brown paper, 38 x 25.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, standing. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, standing, full length, balancing on one foot, c.1928. Pencil and wash, 38.1 x 28. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s (1962) > Hatton Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 2003, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 64

Female life study, standing, full length, playing a flute (aka The Nude Flautist), c.1928. Pencil and wash, 38.8 x 28.2. PROVENANCE: Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1962 > Hatton Gallery. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Newcastle 2003, Newcastle 2004. REPRODUCED: Heard, William Roberts, p. 64

Female life study, standing, pointing. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, standing, with wristwatch. Pencil, 37 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Female life study, upper body, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, upper body, in profile, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Female life study, upper body, with raised arm, c.1955 (dated on backing board). Pencil, approx 30 x 20. The same model appears on the verso of Boys on Swing c.1955

Female and male life studies in shared mount. Pencil, 13 x 9.5 and 18 x 13. ‘This sketch was made by William Roberts at the Westminster [correctly Central] School of Art where he taught. He tore up the drawing and threw the pieces on the floor where they were picked up by his colleague, Bernard Meninsky who put them together again’ – label on reverse of frame quoted in Roseberys 2018 sale catalogue. ‘Meninsky, when he was teaching at the Central, used to go crawling round Bobby’s [Roberts’s] life class after he’d left, asking the students if they’d give him the sketches Bobby made on the corners of their life drawings – it was the way Bobby used to teach. They’re lovely little things. Some of the students would cut them off and let him have them, and he’d go home and paste them up in an album’ – Sarah Roberts quoted in Paucker, Sarah: An Anecdotal Memoir, p. 47. PROVENANCE: Nora Meninsky > Luke Gertler > ? > Roseberys London, 26 Sept. 2018 (estimate £600–£800; unsold)

Life study, legs, c.1930. Pencil, 31.5 x 24. Drawn in the life class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. PROVENANCE: Private collection, Winchester > JS Auctions, Banbury, 26 Mar. 2011 (£425) > E. J. Warren > Holloway’s, Banbury, 23 Sept. 2014 (£200)

Male life study, c.1926? Black chalk and pink wash, 37.2 x 23.8. PROVENANCE: Savile Gallery > Desmond Coke > Sotheby’s 23 July 1931 (lot 137, with The Connoisseur c.1923? and Family at the Seaside, c.1926; £6 10s.) > Maynard Keynes > King’s College, Cambridge. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Savile Gallery 1926 (‘The drawings of the nude figure by Mr. William Roberts are interesting as showing that the tubular convention of this artist is not due to incapacity to draw the forms of nature’ – The Times, 26 Nov. 1926), Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

Male life study. Pencil, 37.7 x 22.7. PROVENANCE: Campbell & Franks > New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester (1981, with assistance from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Funds)

Male life study, bearded, sitting, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Male life study, black, sitting, with raised arm. Pencil, 37 x 20. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Male life study, black, sitting, front view. Pencil, 38 x 27. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985 (as Negro)?

Male life study, black, three-quarter view. Pencil, 36.5 x 26.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1985 (as Negro)?

Male life study, half-length, c.1936–7. Pencil, 17.7 x 13.6. PROVENANCE: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (gift of Hal Missingham, 1967)

Male life study, sitting, with crinkly hair. Pencil, 37.5 x 22.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Male life study, sitting, with interlaced fingers. Pencil, 37 x 24.5. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Male life study, sitting, with leg extended. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Male life study, sitting, with propped arm. Pencil, 38 x 28. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

Male life study, standing, 1940. Pencil, 21 x 12. PROVENANCE: WR > Eve Sheldon-Williams (pupil at Central School of Arts and Crafts) > ? (by descent) > Dreweatts 11 July 2023 (estimate £600–£800; unsold) > Dreweatts 18 Aug. 2023 (estimate £300–£500; unsold) > Dreweatts 13 Oct. 2023 (£341)

Male life study, standing, 1946–7? Pencil. PROVENANCE: WR > pupil at Central School of Arts and Crafts? > Christie’s 13 Dec. 1999 (£391, with Female Life Study, Sitting 1946–7?)

Male life study, standing, with flute. Pencil, 38.1 x 20.3. PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014). EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1993

Male life study, standing, with pole, c.1929–30. Pencil, approx. 16 x 12 (on irregularly shaped paper). PROVENANCE: Drawing done for a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, thence by descent > private collection, UK. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Woking 2011

Nude, 1955. Drawing, 36 x 25. EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989




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