William Goodridge Roberts (1904 - 1974)
William Goodridge Roberts (1904 - 1974) was active/lived in Quebec, New Brunswick / Canada, Barbados. William Roberts is known for Landscape, still life and portrait painting.

Medium: Oil on canvas board
Size: 12" x 16"
Frame Size: 13 1/2" x "
Condition: Great, No Blemishes
Circa: 1950s

William Goodridge Roberts (AKA: Goodridge Roberts) was a painter, graphic artist and educator. He was born in Bathsheba, Barbados, while his parents were visiting there from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He died in Montreal, Quebec. Shortly after his birth his family returned to their home in Fredericton. Before he was twenty, he lived in several locations with them including England (1908 -1910); France (1910 -1912); Fredericton (1912 -1914); England (1914 - 1919) (1); Fredericton (1919); Ottawa, Ontario (1920); and back to Fredericton (1920 -1930). As an adult he lived in Ottawa (1930 - 1933); Kingston, Ontario (1933 -1936); Montreal, Quebec (1936 - 1959 and 1960 -1974) and Fredericton (1959-1960).

His mediums were oil (from 1938), watercolour, pastel, gouache*, charcoal and pencil. His subjects are landscapes, nudes, figures, still life, interiors, cartoons, portraits, self-portraits (2) and from 1943 to 1945, war. The locations of his landscapes include the cities and countryside around where he lived and traveled as well as the Laurentian Mountains and Eastern Townships of (south east) Quebec and Georgian Bay, Ontario (100 miles north of Toronto). His styles were Expressionism*, Fauvism* and Plein Air*.

Quote: "One thing I find extremely fascinating about him is that, unlike the majority of painters of any stripe, he never worked from his imagination, he always used a model or worked directly from the landscape." - Professor Sandra Paikowsky, curator of "Goodridge Roberts Revealed" at The McMichael Canadian Art Collection (1998).

He never used preliminary studies or drawings, and using rapid brush strokes and a loose style, he usually finished a painting in one session and, when painting, often completed more than one a day. His lifetime production is estimated at 3000 works.

Quote: "He would abandon something if he felt it was hopeless, but he almost never went back to a painting -- certainly not at all with a landscape or still life -- but sometimes with a figure he might have worked on it a second time with the model. But that was not his usual habit." - Joan Roberts (wife).

His landscapes usually depict vast spaces; his figure work was characteristically a frontal view with strong contrasts; and his interiors reveal a fauvist influence often with distorted forms and bold colours. There are good illustrations of all his genres in the AskART Image Examples.

His formal art education includes studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal (1923 -1925) under Edmond Dyonnet and Charles Maillard, and at the Art Students League* in New York (1926 -1928) under John French Sloan, Max Weber and Boardman Robinson (see all teachers in AskART).

Roberts worked as an art teacher several times in his life, starting in 1931 at the Art Association of Ottawa; that year he also opened a summer school in Wakefield, Quebec (about 50 miles north of Ottawa); then from 1933 to 1936 he taught at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario as artist in residence on a Carnegie Grant; in 1936 he opened the Roberts-Neumann School of Art in Montreal with Ernst Neumann (see AskART); from 1940 to 1949 he taught at the Art Association of Montreal (interrupted by service in the RCAF 1943 -1945), and from 1959 to 1960 he was resident-artist at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton). Paterson Ewen, John R. Fox and Jacques de Tonnancour (see all in AsKART) are among his former students.

His travels include eight months in Europe (November 1953 - June 1954) on a Canadian government overseas fellowship; he visited Paris, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Florence, Rome, Venice, Padua and Agay on the Côte d'Azur.

He was a founding member of the Eastern Group of Painters* (1938) and the Contemporary Art Society* (1939). He was also a member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour* (1939), the Canadian Society of Graphic Art* (1939), the Canadian Group of Painters* (c.1939), Prisme d'Yeux* (1948), and he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* (1952 Associate /1956 Academician). He also enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1943 and was appointed a war artist serving in England.


PROVENANCE
Private Collection from New Jersey

Shipping:
shipping rates are determined by destination.
Location: This item ships from New York.

Bidders need to know

We encourage all buyers to ask for condition reports and or other photos before bidding, with any questions about each item, Email is the best way to reach us email NewYork@timeauctionglobal.com so we may aid you in your assessment. Condition is appropriate to the age of the item. The absence of a condition report does not imply that the lot is free from damage and wear. Please go through photos for more details on conditions and age; Color will be different depends on your screen.

All the items are sold as is and all sales are final. All bidders are encouraged to review our terms before bidding