AN ENGLISH CUBIST
WILLIAM ROBERTS:
He Knew Degas + studies
Copyrighted material on this page is included as 'fair use', for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner. Catalogue information based on the catalogue raisonné by David Cleall. For this and full details of the exhibitions cited, see the links below. Any auction prices quoted may not include all fees and taxes, such as VAT and Artist's Resale Right charges.
(recto) He Knew Degas – study, 1938
Pencil, 15 cm x 15cm
(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
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He Knew Degas – study, 1938
Pencil, 15 cm x 14 cm
PROVENANCE: Pallant House Gallery (Wilson Gift, through National Art Collections Fund, 2004)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Gillian Jason Gallery 1990
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He Knew Degas – study, 1938
Pencil, 26.3 cm x 26.3 cm
PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (E.824-1939)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965 and tour, Newcastle 2004
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He Knew Degas – study, 1938
Gouache and pencil, 25.4 cm x 25.4 cm
PROVENANCE: Victoria & Albert Museum (Circ.325-1939)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Tate Gallery 1965 and tour, Hayward Gallery 1979
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He Knew Degas, 1938
Oil on canvas, 91.5 cm x 91.5 cm
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.
Sickert and Thérèse Lessore in his studio. For more on Roberts and Sickert, click here.
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 and tour, Worthing 1972
REPRODUCED: The Sketch, 23 Nov. 1938
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