AN ENGLISH CUBIST




WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Camel March



Illustration © The Estate of John David Roberts. Reproduced with the permission of the William Roberts Society. Catalogue information based on the catalogue raisonné by David Cleall. For this and full details of the exhibitions cited, see the links below. Any auction prices quoted may not include all fees and taxes, such as VAT and Artist's Resale Right charges.


Camel March

Camel March (aka Camel Corps), 1922
Ink and watercolour, 33 cm x 57.8 cm

This depiction of the army of the Arab leader Feisal en route to Wejh during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was based on a photograph taken by T. E. Lawrence. When he saw the finished illustration for Seven Pillars of Wisdom he wrote to Roberts, 'I saw the camels yesterday. The colour first delighted me: it's the most beautiful thing to look at: then I saw how excellent was the design: and the landscape is just what one would have wished (but hardly imagined anything so quiet as that lawn of uncrinkled sand): the whole thing is really marvellous: better than anything I thought possible' (11 Dec. 1922).
PROVENANCE: Sir Edward Marsh > Michael Ayrton > Sotheby's 13 May 1987 (£19,800) > T. T. Andreae
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Gallery 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Leicester Galleries (1) 1927, Whitechapel Gallery 1929, Newcastle 1931, Johannesburg 1936, National Gallery 1940, Grosvenor Gallery 1965, Tate Gallery 1965, Hamet Gallery 1971, Parkin Gallery 1976, National Portrait Gallery 1988




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