AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Fred

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.

Fred, 1920–23
Oil on canvas, 62.5 cm x 51 cm

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 December 2013 (£6,200) > private collection (London)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923