WILLIAM ROBERTS SOCIETY

Newsletter, September 2011

Newspapers (1926), which sold for £169,250 in Sotheby’s auction of the Evill/Frost collection on 15 June.

A.G.M. and lecture … New auction record … More WRs in the NPG … A new WR exhibition in Woking … The Toe Dancer visits Rotterdam … The Tate website … WR as life coach … ‘Your Paintings’ … WR and Edward Burra … ‘The Vorticists’at Tate Britain …WR in Cambridge … WILLIAM ROBERTS SOCIETY

registered charity no. 1090538 Committee: Pauline Paucker (chairman), Marion Hutton (secretary: Lexden House,Tenby SA70 7BJ; 01834 843295; [email protected]),Arnold Paucker (treasurer), David Cleall (archivist), Bob Davenport (newsletter and website: [email protected]), Michael Mitzman (copyright), Ruth Artmonsky,Anne Goodchild,Agi Katz www.williamrobertssociety.co.uk

September 2011

A.G.M. AND Roberts’s war service, and the art that ANNUAL LECTURE came out of it. Admission will be £4 for William This year’s WRS annual lecture will take Roberts Society members and students, place at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen and £6 for others. Square, London WC1N 3AT on Satur- day 22 October at 3.00, following a brief a.g.m. at 2.45 (please note the changed A NEW ROBERTS times). The speaker will be David Boyd AUCTION RECORD Haycock, author of the acclaimed book A Crisis of Brilliance, whose theme will The auction record for a work by be ‘A Crisis of Brilliance: William William Roberts doubled in a couple of Roberts and his Slade School Contem- hours when his painting The Masks poraries, 1910–1919’. (c.1932) sold for £457,250 in the first In his lecture, Dr Haycock will part of Sotheby’s sale of the Evill/Frost explore Roberts’s time at the Slade and collection on 15–16 June. Two years ago look at the factors that had by then a record was set when Brass Balls helped make the school the foremost art (1922) was auctioned for $368,000 (then institution in England, why it attracted about £228,000) in Israel – a price which such an exciting array of young students, was also exceeded by two other works in how these young contemporaries influ- the Evill/Frost sale: The Restaurant enced one another, and how they were (1929, £373,250) and Dogs of the Beni influenced by the exciting movements in Hillal (1925, £409,250). the British art scene at that time, from The other works by Roberts in the sale post-Impressionism to Futurism and all exceeded their upper estimates – . He will end by looking at some by several hundred per cent. See

– 1 – the news page of the WRS website for T. F. Powys sold for £1,750, that of H. E. Spencer’s English contemporaries. The WR ON THE TATE WEBSITE details. Bates for £2,875 and that of Rhys Davies picture dates from 1914, and shows a Given their resentment at the profits for £3,000 – all well above estimate – scene in a sort of artists’ squat where, We were pleased to see that images of 30 made when his patron Ernest Cooper and the Bates and Powys portraits are according to , ‘there was a of the works on paper that the Tate sold works that he had bought from WR, now in the collection of the National life class at which I sometimes drew, and acquired from the estate of John Roberts the Robertses would probably have had Portrait Gallery. sometimes the artists, among others in 2007 have now appeared on the Tate mixed feelings about this. John Roberts Roberts and Bomberg, a mysterious website (see pages 5 and 6), with the was once shown an extract from Indian artist, and some models, would promise of more to follow. Georges Jeanniot’s Memories of Degas A WILLIAM ROBERTS have parties … The mysterious Indian Many of these works have been given about an auction of works belonging to EXHIBITION IN WOKING died, it is said, of eating a herring which titles taken from the police inventory Degas’s friend Henri Rouart: he had kept too long in a drawer.’ hastily compiled when all the pictures in Two of the works by WR in the 14 St Mark’s Crescent were taken to the Degas stayed in a distant room. Evill/Frost sale – Artist and Wife (1940) Tate for safekeeping after John Roberts Suddenly a reporter rushes in: and The Recorder Player [John Roberts] was found dead; but in most cases David ‘Monsieur Degas! Do you know (1935–6) – were bought by Chris Cleall has been able to link the works to how much your painting of Two Ingram, most of whose collection of the titles under which they were exhibit- Dancers at the Bar with a Watering works by Roberts, held at The Lightbox ed during WR’s lifetime, or by Sarah and Can has just been sold for?’ in Woking, we saw at a private viewing John Roberts after his death, and he has ‘No.’ in October last year. There will now be a sent the Tate his findings. ‘Four hundred and seventy-five public exhibition of the expanded collec- thousand francs!’ tion from 24 September to 18 December. ‘Oh! That is a good price,’ Degas Woking is less than half an hour from WR AS LIFE COACH said. London Waterloo, and The Lightbox ‘What! You are not disgusted that (www.thelightbox.org.uk) is in Chobham One of the WRs newly illustrated on the this painting won’t ever bring you Road in the town centre; admission is Tate website is a satire on art-school more than the 500 francs you were free. The gallery is closed on Mondays, teaching exhibited in 1949 as The Life paid for it?’ and would-be visitors are asked to phone Master. So when a contact made at the ‘No, sir. I am like the racehorse who 01483 737837 on the day of an intended Tate’s ‘Repositioning Vorticism’sympo- wins the Grand Prix, I am satisfied visit to check that the room containing sium (see page 6) invited David Cleall with my ration of oats.’ the Robertses will be open. to visit a private art collection it was interesting that this included ten life John was not amused. studies made by Roberts for demonstra- THE TOE DANCER VISITS tion purposes on the edge of a student’s ROTTERDAM drawings in the life class at the Central MORE WRs IN THE NPG School of Art, London, in 1929–30. WR’s The Toe Dancer, from the V&A These small drawings – now all on the Earlier, on 23 March, Christie’s South collection, is to be shown in the exhib- WRS website – are notable not only for Kensington sold three portrait drawings ition ‘Sir Stanley Spencer: Between their technical accomplishment but also by Roberts which first appeared as Heaven and Earth’ at the Kunsthal, Woman Bathing Child (1939), a watercolour for the sense of the sitter’s personality frontispieces to issues of the magazine Rotterdam, from 17 September to 15 from the Evill/Frost collection, sold on conveyed in a number of them, and one New Coterie in 1926–7. The portrait of January, as one of 20 works by 16 June for £30,000 of them is shown on page 4, right.

– 2 – – 3 – One of Roberts’s students at this time drawing of Roberts (below, left) made was the New Zealand printmaker H. C. by Peake while they were both on duty Cameron, and we have recently had a in the life class. request to reproduce WR’s cover for New Coterie no. 3 (1926) in the first study of her work, whose author, Dr Gail ‘YOUR PAINTINGS’ Ross, says that WR seems to have been Cameron’s main influence. Eighteen works by WR are among the Roberts taught at the Central School first 63,000 pictures made available by between 1925 and 1960. In the early the BBC ‘Your Paintings’ project, 1950s a colleague there was Mervyn which, in association with the Public Peake, and a recent exhibition of Peake’s Catalogue Foundation, aims to put work at the Chris Beetles Gallery online all oil paintings in UK public (www.chrisbeetles.com) included a collections.

One of the works newly illustrated on the Tate website: a previously unknown study for the 1928 painting The Tea Garden (aka Park Café)

Among the Roberts works already on ‘I am in the process of settling our den- the project’s website – another 50 or so tist’s account, i.e. with pictures.’ are still to be uploaded – is a portrait called The Dentist (1925). This is per- haps an instance of the Roberts family WR AND EDWARD BURRA settling bills with paintings: when John Roberts was dropped and seriously From 22 October to 19 February, Pallant injured at the age of four, the surgeon, House Gallery in Chichester is mounting named Milne, who operated on him was the first major Edward Burra exhibition Mervyn Peake’s pencil-and-pastel drawing ‘The drawings of the nude figure by Mr. paid with a picture which we believe to for over 25 years, curated by Simon of William Roberts, made in the life class of William Roberts are interesting as showing have been Portrait of Sarah, the Artist’s Martin. Although it is not known if they the Central School of Art in the early 1950s that the tubular convention of this artist is Wife (aka La Femme Tragique), c.1921 ever met, Burra was a great admirer of and recently on show at the Chris Beetles not due to incapacity to draw the forms of (sold by Bonhams in 2007 and now WR’s work, especially after seeing his Gallery (reproduced by courtesy of the nature’ – The Times, 26 November 1926, hanging in the restaurant of the Old one-man show in 1923, and WR’s influ- Chris Beetles Gallery and the Mervyn reviewing an exhibition at the Savile Parsonage hotel, Oxford); and in a letter ence is discussed in Simon’s monograph Peake Estate) Gallery of November 1987 John Roberts wrote, that will accompany the exhibition.

– 4 – – 5 – ‘THE VORTICISTS’ While the speakers had moved on Museum we saw watercolours and AT TATE BRITAIN from the position taken by Wyndham drawings, and at King’s College mainly A report by David Cleall Lewis in 1956, when he stated that oils on canvas. Overall, the range and ‘Vorticism was, in fact, what I, personal- vitality of the works left me feeling that Tate Britain’s recent exhibition ‘The ly, did and said at a certain period,’ there I had been to a small but powerful Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern was still some controversy around the Roberts retrospective. World’, curated by Mark Antliff and role of the women Vorticists in relation The Fitzwilliam showed us classic Vivien Greene and previously seen in to the dominance of Lewis. This issue works on paper by Roberts from the America and Venice, focused on the had been effectively raised in Brigid 1910s through to the early 1930s, all Vorticist exhibitions held in London Peppin’s article ‘Women that a drawn with that assured line that created (1915) and at the Penguin Club, New Movement Forgot’ in Tate etc. (no. 22), not only shape and pattern but also vol- York (1917), the publication of the two where she used as her starting point ume and weight. For me the highlights editions of Blast (1914 and 1915), and WR’s painting The Vorticists at the here were French Sailors on the Deck of the photographs of Alvin Langdon The Broken Vortex – the back-cover illustra- Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel (1961–2) – a Ship and Street Acrobats, the former Coburn. A group of WRS members went tion for WR’s Cometism and Vorticism a work that was hung to good effect just showing Roberts’s beautiful light wash- to see it on 5 July. (Vortex Pamphlet No. 2, 1956) – another of outside the exhibition. es of watercolour, creating a solid and As well as presenting spectacular set the works that recently appeared on the Tate The newspaper coverage was disap- unified pattern of activity and colour, pieces such as a reconstruction of website pointingly unenthusiastic – even where and the latter using a thicker, more con- Epstein’s Rock Drill against a puce back reviewers such as Craig Raine in The trolled watercolour mix, almost like wall, and Gaudier-Brzeska’s Hieratic Among the interesting articles published Guardian (28 May) highlighted the gouache, to create more stylised figures Head of , the curators had in the exhibition catalogue, Vivien Greene meagre representation of Roberts’s work with a palpable presence that gave this unearthed some previously unknown gave a well-researched account of the New in the exhibition given his particular monumental work on paper almost the Vorticist works such as three water- York exhibition and Robert Hewison pro- ‘talent’. But in the June Art Monthly feel of an oil painting. Other highlights colours by Helen Saunders and a group vided a detailed insight into the design, Christopher Townsend’s article ‘Into were a beautiful pencil self-portrait head of recently discovered photographs by typography and production of Blast. the Vortex’ provided one of the most and a lovely relaxed red-chalk drawing Coburn of Lewis, Wadsworth and Earlier, a conference organised by the original re-evaluations of Vorticism and of Maynard Keynes and Lydia Lopo- Epstein in their studios in 1916–17. The Tate, ‘Repositioning Vorticism’, brought celebrated Roberts’s success in over- kova. display of original documents such as a together established experts in the field coming his financial and social dis- A short walk through sunshine and Gaudier-Brzeska sketchbook and his let- such as Richard Cork and Paul Edwards advantages and becoming one ‘of the architecture later we arrived at King’s ters from the front, ’s with the exhibition’s curators. A full day great artists of the First World War’. College, where we were given incredible ‘Round Robin letter’ denouncing the of lectures (some of them now on the access to the private chambers. In the Omega Workshops, and other Vorticist Tate Channel website) explored topics provost’s office we viewed a superb pen- memorabilia gave the exhibition such as Whistler’s influence on Ezra WILLIAM ROBERTS cil study of Lydia Lopokova, a more weight. Pound’s writings on Vorticism, the anti- IN CAMBRIDGE worked and considered drawing than the The contents had been slightly colonialism of Gaudier-Brzeska’s primi- A report by John Duffin red-chalk sketch we had seen in the expanded at Tate Britain, and it was tivist aesthetics, the contradictory Fitzwilliam. very pleasing to see Roberts’s study aspects of T. E. Hulme’s championing of On 19 April, thanks to arrangements Along ascent up several flights of for The Return of Ulysses being exhib- Vorticism while being somewhat at odds made by David Cleall, members of the stairs took us to Labourers, a large oil on ited alongside Bomberg and Nevinson with its practice, and the influence of the society visited Cambridge to view rarely canvas of workers with spades and tools. in the context of the avant-garde in artist Max Weber on the London art seen works by WR in permanent collec- This was a marvellous example of London in 1913. world of 1913. tions in the city. At the Fitzwilliam Roberts’s early 1930s output, incredibly

– 6 – – 7 – bold and dynamic – Russian construct- that the resulting picture was assured and ivism via Camden Town! boldly created. The key location was yet to come: a The sun shone on Cambridge that day, don’s room that contained several mar- and on the WRS. We had an afternoon of vellous oil paintings, including three viewing work by Roberts at the very top hanging on the walls which each had the of his game. same 1930s finish. Spanish Beggars, Shuttlecock and Apple Pickers were classic Roberts: all had multiple figures FAREWELLS and great design and colour balance, and in each of them the paint had been care- At the end of May we were very sad to fully blended by small sable brushes to hear of the sudden death in France of achieve a smooth, glowing surface. WRS member Susan Langlands. A for- These oils had clearly all had working mer landscape architect, Susan, with her drawings made beforehand, for in husband, Iain, attended as many WRS Roberts’s best work you could not move events as they could manage – most any part of the composition without recently our Cambridge visit. We send destroying the balance of the whole. The our condolences to Iain and the rest of colours are now 80 years old, but looked their family. fresh and vigorous – to my mind con- The William Roberts Society was firming Roberts as a proto British pop founded thirteen years ago at a meeting artist some 30 years before Blake and in Agi Katz’s well-known Boundary Hockney. Gallery. We are sorry to learn that end- We also saw a pencil study for Les of-lease problems mean she is now hav- Routiers and an oil portrait of John ing to close. The gallery specialised in Roberts as a boy. the modern British school – particularly To me, these works epitomised the work of Jewish artists, among them Roberts’s technique and approach. He Jacob Kramer, the brother-in-law of was firstly a draughtsman and designer: William Roberts – and in contemporary he drew out pencil compositions, and figurative art. Agi will continue to deal once satisfied with them he created a via the internet (www.judaicart.com and colour wash drawing/watercolour, which www.boundarygallery.com) and at art would then be squared for transfer to a fairs. With galleries in Cork Street con- canvas. By the time he put down the first cerned for their future, it is possible that stroke of oil paint he had done so much the concentration of art dealers there research and development on the image may disappear too.

Printed in Great Britain by Parchments of Oxford Except where indicated, all illustrations © the estate of John David Roberts

– 8 – Above: The Resurrection (1912) – a drawing by WR on a Slade School Sketch Club set subject. ‘A Crisis of Brilliance: William Roberts and his Slade School Contemporaries, 1910–1919’ is the title of this year’s WRS annual lecture, to be given by David Boyd Haycock on 22 October. See inside for full details. Below: A pencil study for The Judgement of Paris (1933), to be auctioned by Sotheby’s on 16 November.