AN ENGLISH CUBISTSarah Roberts:The Classical Guitar obituary |
No time spent with Sarah was ever wasted. Her acute powers of observation, her human
insight, her eye for detail, her sometimes acerbic (but never malicious or hurtful)
tongue made her a delightful conversationalist. After a meeting with her, one felt
more alive, more aware of the possibilities of life and art. She had known just about every major figure in British art from the early years of the century, including Augustus John, Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg and William Rothenstein. Her husband had done many of the illustrations for the first edition of T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and the Roberts family became friendly with 'Lawrence of Arabia', who would often invite them to stay at his cottage in Dorset. Her personality was vibrant and powerful without being in any way abrasive. Like her brother, she retained a distinct bohemian streak. I remember going to review a guitar recital c. 1978 and, approaching the hall, hearing my name called. I turned to see Sarah running (in her late 70s!) to catch me up. She had forgotten to bring her ticket, and wanted to know if I had a spare press ticket. I had to tell her that I was expecting another friend, but a quick telephone call made it clear that the friend could not come. I went in search of Sarah to offer her the other half of my double press ticket, but there was no sign of her. I waited until the doors were about to close, then went inside. It was one of those sparsely attended concerts where the press, the artist's friends and relations and agent form the largest part of the audience. Sarah was sitting comfortably in the second row. I expressed the hope that she had encountered no difficulty over her lack of a ticket. 'I just walked in,'she said simply, and added serenely: 'Nobody stops you when you're my age.' That was the true, unique and irresistible Sarah, whom nobody wished to stop anyway. She was a lone survivor from her generation of artists, and her passing marks the end of an era. © Colin Cooper Classical Guitar, vol. 11, no. 6 (February 1993) News | Gallery | Auction results | The artists house | Contact List of works illustrated on the site Catalogue raisonné: chronological | alphabetical |