AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Combat – study

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.

Combat (aka Battle of the Amazons) – study
(aka Fight on the Beach and Beach Fight), 1966
Watercolour over pencil, 14 cm x 17 cm

The oil for which this is a study was in 1976 reproduced by Roberts as Battle of the Amazons, but in auctions following WR's death the subject has been wrongly identified as Rape of the Sabine Women (in 1986) or The Rape of the Sabines (in 1995).
PROVENANCE: Sotheby's 21 Sept. 1983 (as Beach Fight, £550) > ? > Sotheby's 30 Apr. 1986 (as Rape of the Sabine Women, £770) > Albemarle Gallery > ? > Christie's 20 June 1995 (as The Rape of the Sabines, £1,553)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: New Grafton Gallery 1976 (as Fight on the Beach c.1942/3), New Grafton Gallery 1979 (as Fight on the Beach c.1942/3), Spink & Son 1993 (as The Rape of the Sabines)