William Roberts

William Roberts, “The Barber’s Shop”, 1946, Oil on Canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm, Tate Museum, London

William Roberts joined the Vorticists in 1914. Founded that year by artist and writer Wyndham Lewis, the Vorticist objective was to break with the decayed state of British art and begin anew. Its style relied on a combination of the styles of Cubism and Futurism. Roberts’ work exemplifies some of the motifs, while equally retaining a connotation of Fernand Léger’s tubular representation of human figures.

After the war, Roberts returned to London with a different aesthetic in mind. The experiences of the war had changed him. He now focussed on the everyday city life of people; but he imbued his work with his pre-war architectural aesthetic and a renewed concentration on the human figure.

Note: For those interested in William Robet’s work, an alphabetical list of his complete oeuvre can be found at: http://www.englishcubist.co.uk/catalph.html

William Roberts

William Roberts: Paintings and Drawing (Study for ‘The Return of Ulysses’)

Roberts was intrigued by Post-impressionism and Cubism, an interest fuelled by his friendships at the Slade, in particular with the audacious British painter David Bomberg, as well as by his travels in France and Italy after leaving the Slade in 1913.

Later in 1913 Roberts joined Roger Fry’s Omega Workshops for three mornings a week. The ten shillings earned for each workshop that Omega paid enabled Roberts to create challenging Cubist-style paintings such as “The Return of Ulysses” which was purchased by the Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Nottingham, England.