AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Guitar Lesson + 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.

Guitar Lesson, 1976
Watercolour and pencil, squared, 20.3 cm x 15.2 cm

PROVENANCE: Christie's 6 Nov. 1992 > ? > Christie's 27 Mar. 1997 (£1,552) > ? > Bonhams (Leeds) 12 Mar. 2002 (£1,850)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Albemarle Gallery 1989, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992

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The Guitar Lesson, 1976 (dated)
Oil on canvas, 61.0 cm x 46.0 cm

WR tackled the subject of John Roberts teaching his mother, Sarah, the guitar on three separate occasions – cf. The Guitar Lesson c.1949 and The Guitar Lesson 1971. In a notebook of memoirs, John wrote of a teacher at his school, 'Dissatisfied with my work, he tossed my exercise book out of the window in a rage . . . I was puzzled; but forty years later, teaching my mother the guitar, I understood him well.'
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, Gillian Jason Gallery (2) 1986, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992