Roberts, William (1895-1980) - 1932c. The Ballet (National Galleries of Scotland)
Oil on canvas; 40.8 x 45.6 cm.
English painter. He was apprenticed to the advertising firm of Sir Joseph Causton Ltd with the intention of becoming a poster designer (1909), but he attended evening classes at St Martin’s School of Art in London, and won a London County Council scholarship in drawing to the Slade School of Art in 1910. Roberts never lost the impeccable clarity of design that his early poster-designing experience instilled in him. He thrived at the Slade winning a Slade scholarship (1912). Like his close friend David Bomberg, he was fascinated by the achievements of Post-Impressionism and Cubism, an interest fortified in 1913 when he left the Slade and traveled in France and Italy. Such paintings from this period as The Return of Ulysses show his determination to simplify his figures and to adopt an aerial viewpoint that reduced the entire picture to a flat, angular pattern.
He was closely associated with the Vorticist movement though he worked with Roger Fry at the Omega Workshops after Wyndham Lewis had left to set up the Rebel Art Centre; Roberts was called up in April 1916 and spent two years as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery before working as a War Artist for the Canadians from the summer of 1918. A signatory to the initial Vorticist Manifesto, after the War he met T.E. Lawrence and produced illustrations for Seven Pillars of Wisdom, reflecting still the Vorticism that later in his career gave way to an idiosyncratic figurative style.
Roberts, William (1895-1980) - 1932c. The Ballet (National Galleries of Scotland)
Oil on canvas; 40.8 x 45.6 cm.
English painter. He was apprenticed to the advertising firm of Sir Joseph Causton Ltd with the intention of becoming a poster designer (1909), but he attended evening classes at St Martin’s School of Art in London, and won a London County Council scholarship in drawing to the Slade School of Art in 1910. Roberts never lost the impeccable clarity of design that his early poster-designing experience instilled in him. He thrived at the Slade winning a Slade scholarship (1912). Like his close friend David Bomberg, he was fascinated by the achievements of Post-Impressionism and Cubism, an interest fortified in 1913 when he left the Slade and traveled in France and Italy. Such paintings from this period as The Return of Ulysses show his determination to simplify his figures and to adopt an aerial viewpoint that reduced the entire picture to a flat, angular pattern.
He was closely associated with the Vorticist movement though he worked with Roger Fry at the Omega Workshops after Wyndham Lewis had left to set up the Rebel Art Centre; Roberts was called up in April 1916 and spent two years as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery before working as a War Artist for the Canadians from the summer of 1918. A signatory to the initial Vorticist Manifesto, after the War he met T.E. Lawrence and produced illustrations for Seven Pillars of Wisdom, reflecting still the Vorticism that later in his career gave way to an idiosyncratic figurative style.