AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

John

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.

John, 1962
Oil on canvas, 40.6 cm x 30.5 cm

Having graduated from University College, London, with a degree in physics in 1940, during the Second World War Roberts's son, John (1919–95), subsequently worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Liss, Hants, for the Forestry Commission near Ludlow, and in the Merchant Navy as a kitchen hand on MV Georgic, before joining his parents in Oxford, where he opened a short-lived bookshop. After the war he lived on his own in London for a year before joining his parents in 14 St Mark's Crescent, London, where he lived for the rest of his life. He studied and wrote on the guitar, and self-published books of verse and other fiction, as well as collections of his father's writings and material about his uncle Jacob Kramer. He made some money by buying and selling books.
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Reading 1983, National Portrait Gallery 1984