AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Demolition Squad

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.

Demolition Squad, 1941
Oil on canvas, 54 cm x 78 cm

This is probably the unnamed picture that was rejected when Roberts submitted it to the War Artists' Advisory Committee in August 1941 (correspondence in Roberts's file in section GP/55/2 of the War Artists’ Archive, Imperial War Museum, London). The Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue notes that 'This was not a commission from the War Artists' Advisory committee, although it was made partly in the hope that the Committee would buy it.' It 'depicts a demolition squad at work removing artefacts, debris and a covered victim from the ruins of a church. 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 15 October 2025
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