AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Teaching the Crawl + study

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.

Teaching the Crawl – study, c.1964
Pencil, squared, 16.5 cm x 11.5 cm

PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts (held in Tate store, 2014)

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Teaching the Crawl, c.1964
Pencil and watercolour, 43 cm x 31.3 cm

'[T]his drawing is one of several suggested by my swim practice at the Prince of Wales baths [in Kentish Road, London NW5]; a place where Sickert also liked to do his swimming' – Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976) EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Northampton 1971, Exeter 1971, Hamet Gallery 1973
REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings and Drawings (1976), pl. 10
Cf. The Swimming Coach 1956–7. Teaching the Crawl is dated to 1957 in the 1971 and 1973 exhibitions, and is probably the watercolour with that title dated to c.1960 in Anthony d’Offay Gallery (1) 1969, where the dimensions given – 17.5 x 12.5 in, or 54.6 x 31.8 cm – may be the result of some confusion.