AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Judgement of Paris, 1933

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.

The Judgement of Paris, 1933
Oil on canvas, 40.5 cm x 52 cm

According to Greek mythology, when Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to a wedding banquet sponsored by Zeus, the king of the gods, she turned up anyway and threw a golden apple inscribed with the words 'for the fairest'. Three goddesses – Hera (the wife of Zeus and queen of heaven), Athena (the goddess of war) and Aphrodite (the goddess of love) – claimed the apple, and Zeus delegated the Trojan prince Paris to judge between them. When the goddesses appeared before Paris as he tended his flocks on Mount Ida, he decided for Aphrodite, after she promised him the love of the world's most beautiful woman, Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. His subsequent taking of Helen led to the Trojan War.
PROVENANCE: WR > Wilfrid Evill (Apr. 1938, £25) > Miss Honor Frost (1963) > Sotheby's 16 June 2011 (£109,250)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists' Association (4) 1933, London Artists' Association 1934, Lefevre Gallery (1) 1935, Leicester Galleries 1937, Redfern Gallery 1942, Paris 1946, Contemporary Art Society 1947, Tate Gallery 1952, Contemporary Art Society 1961, Brighton 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Chichester (2) 2016