Still Life by William Goodridge Roberts
Goodridge Roberts
Still Life
oil on board
signed lower right
20 x 16 ins ( 50.8 x 40.6 cms )
Auction Estimate: $3,000.00 - $4,000.00
Price Realized $4,560.00
Sale date: September 28th 2021
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Calgary
Roberts spent two years studying at Montreal's École des Beaux-Arts, where he found inspiration in the work of James Wilson Morrice and Puvis de Chavannes. From 1926 to 1928, he studied at New York's Art Students League, under John Sloan, Max Weber. After finishing his studies, Roberts worked for a year as a draughtsman, before moving to Ottawa in 1930. He soon organized a class at the Ottawa Art Association, where he exhibited his work, and opened a summer school for painting in nearby Wakefield, in the Gatineau Valley.
In 1932, Roberts held his first solo exhibition at Montreal's Arts Club, where he came to the attention of John Lyman. Four years later, after a period as artist-in-residence at Queen's University, Kingston, he moved to Montreal, where he joined up with Ernest Neumann to open the Roberts-Neumann School of Art. He became a charter member of the Eastern Group of Painters and the Contemporary Arts Society in 1938 and 1939, respectively. He taught at the Art Association of Montreal for the better part of a decade, with a two-year gap during World War II, when he was stationed in England as an official war artist.
Among Roberts's many national and international exhibitions was the National Gallery of Canada's 1969 retrospective, a rare honour for a living artist. Roberts was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1956) and the Order of Canada (1969).
Source: National Gallery of Canada
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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.
