Sandra Paikowsky, Goodridge Roberts 1904 - 1974, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1998, page 162
Goodridge Roberts painted self-portraits throughout his life, though he produced roughly a dozen in the mid-1950s. Sandra Paikowsky writes, “By virtue of their very subject matter, Roberts’ self-portraits from the middle years of the 1950s are the embodiment of his identity as a mature painter. He produced several large paintings in which the presentation of his working environment is an essential extension of his persona.” He usually identifies himself as a painter, such as in this example, holding a paintbrush and palette alongside an easel. Roberts depicts himself wearing glasses, enhancing the symbolic reference to the painter as spectator. The cigarette suggests a natural, candid tone to the scene.
