AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Street Acrobats + study

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.

Street Acrobats (aka Pavement Scene and Composition in Water-colour), 1923
Pencil and watercolour, 28.5 cm x 20.5 cm

Although dated as c.1913–15 in the Maclean Gallery 1980 catalogue (which incorrectly suggests that it could be a study for Overbacks 1915), this is actually a study for Street Acrobats in the King's College collection, which is signed and dated as 1923, and the finished watercolour is consistent with Robert's angular style of the early 1920s.

PROVENANCE: John Winter > James Hyman Fine Arts > ?
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Parkin Gallery 1976, Maclean Gallery 1980

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Street Acrobats, 1923 (signed and dated in black ink)
Pencil, ink and watercolour, 50 cm x 35.5 cm

This appears to be a different work from The Acrobats c.1921, as studies for this and The Acrobats were exhibited at the Parkin Gallery (1976) as separate works with no connection being made between the two. The catalogue for the 1983 Maynard Keynes exhibition in Cambridge notes that 'This strong drawing has much in common with Wyndham Lewis' work of the same period.'
PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby's 23 July 1931 > Maynard Keynes > King's College, Cambridge
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985
Cf. The Tumbler 1920–23, Acrobats 1916–17, The Acrobats c.1921, The Acrobats 1940–59 and The Acrobats c.1957