Artwork by William Goodridge Roberts,  Edge of Woods in Spring, New Brunswick

Goodridge Roberts
Edge of Woods in Spring, New Brunswick

oil on board
signed lower right; titled and dated 1960 on an exhibition label on the reverse; Roberts Inventory Number (705) on the reverse
36 x 48 ins ( 91.4 x 121.9 cms )

Auction Estimate: $10,000.00$8,000.00 - $10,000.00

Price Realized $9,600.00
Sale date: June 9th 2021

Provenance:
Collection of the artist
Private Collection, Montreal
Exhibited:
Goodridge Roberts, Festival Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, no. 705
By 1959-60, William Goodridge Roberts was the artist in residence at the University of New Brunswick, and in 1960 he was presented with an honorary doctorate from the university. At this point in his career, Goodridge Roberts was a well-established artist and teacher, having taught at the Montreal Art Association between 1940 and 1952. From 1943-45 he was the Official War Artist for the Royal Canadian Air Force and had also exhibited nationally and internationally.

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William Goodridge Roberts
(1904 - 1974) Canadian Group of Painters, RCA

Roberts was born in Barbados in 1904 to a prominent Canadian literary family. His father, Theodore, was a poet, novelist, and journalist. Roberts began his studies at Montreal's Ecole des Beaux-Arts but, encouraged by his art-critic aunt, Mary Fanton Roberts, he enrolled at New York's Art Students League. His New York schooling would prove to be a major influence on his career.

During the 1930s, Roberts lived, painted, and taught in Ontario. He was the very first artist-in-residence at Queens University in Kingston. Refusing to incorporate nationalist content into his work, Roberts became recognized for his modernist approach. In the 1940s, Roberts moved to Montreal and continued painting and teaching. He was admired by Quebec's francophone art community who saw in his work a reflection of the modernist figurative tradition from France, known in Montreal as "living art." His works were equally divided into the themes of landscapes, portraits and still lifes; all are textbook examples of each style. The artist's last major retrospective was held at the National Gallery of Canada in 1969. He died in January 1974.