AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Swimming Lesson

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.

The Swimming Lesson (aka The Swimming Bath), c.1929
Oil on canvas, 51 cm x 41 cm

PROVENANCE: Prof. John Anderson (1933) > ? (by descent) > Christie's Melbourne 6–7 May 2003 (A$96,350)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: London Artists’ Association (1) 1929 (as The Swimming Bath, 50 gns), Birmingham 1929 ('The most extreme picture in this show is No. 31, "The Swimming Lesson," by William Roberts. As an example of the manner in which the sense of motion in the human form may be conveyed by the building up of simple rhythms and contrasts, it is worthy of study, but it is also an example of extremism, which later will serve only as a means to an end. That is the ultimate value of all extremism in an artist, and for this reason it cannot justly be regarded as wilful or obtuse' – Birmingham Daily Gazette, 2 Oct. 1929), Hamburg 1932? (as Schwimmunterricht), Melbourne and Sydney 1933 ('The man who cannot obtain a laugh from Mr. William Roberts's "The Swimming Lesson" has no humor in him' – The Sun (Sydney), 18 Apr. 1933)