AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Munitions Factory

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Munitions Factory, 1940
Oil on canvas, 80 cm x 120 cm

The munition factory was based on drawings made in Woolwich Arsenal.
PROVENANCE: Imperial War Museum (LD369), commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee > Salford Art Gallery (1947)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: British Institute of Adult Education (1) 1941 ('The teeming munition workers of the Midlands will be mightily puzzled and not in the least flattered by William Roberts's "Munitions Factory," which has been given the place of honour; but it is not to be taken literally. It is a grotesque in which which the stunted figures, embroiled with their machinery as completely as the late Harry Tate with his car, are intended to suggest "robots"' – Birmingham Mail, 8 May 1942; 'This is a design, rather like a mediæval calendar in which all the various activities of the year are shown in one drawing. Here he [Roberts] has shown all the various activities that go on in a munition factory in a kind of pattern. The hard clanging of metal is beautifully interpreted by the colour, and he is trying to show – to "tell the world" if you like – how strong we are and how concentrated on our job of production' – The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, 3 June 1943), Royal Academy 1945, Tate Gallery 1965 and tour, Whitechapel Gallery 1972