AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

English Gothic

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

English Gothic, c.1918
Pencil and red ink, 14.5 cm x 18 cm

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