AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Connoisseur + study

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

The Connoisseur (aka The Connoisseurs), c.1923
Black chalk and watercolour, 22.4 cm x 21 cm

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

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The Connoisseur (signed and dated and inscribed 'The Picture Dealer'), 1923
Charcoal, 51 cm x 40 cm

'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: Richard Wyndham > Sotheby’s 24 Nov. 1948 (as The Picture Dealer, with Battery Wagon Lines 1919?; £6) > ? Abbot > ? > Ernest Cooper > Sotheby's 11 Nov. 1987 (as The Picture Dealer, £8,800) > private collection, London
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Tate Gallery 1965 (where said to have been bought by Ernest Cooper from WR) and tour, Worthing 1972 (as The Picture Dealer)
REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 24, where dated 1921 despite a visible inscription of '1923'