AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

The Connoisseur + 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.

The Connoisseur (aka The Connoisseurs), c.1923
Black chalk and watercolour, 22.4 cm x 21 cm

PROVENANCE: Desmond Coke > Sotheby's 23 July 1931 > Maynard Keynes (as part of lot 137: 'It is typical of Keynes’ love of a bargain that he should have acquired [this] example of one of the members of the LAA at auction rather than direct from the artist. At auction they worked out cheaper' – David Scrase and Peter Croft, Cambridge 1983 catalogue, p. 59) > King’s College, Cambridge
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Cambridge 1983, Cambridge 1985

*

The Connoisseur (signed and dated and inscribed 'The Picture Dealer'), 1923
Charcoal, 51 cm x 40 cm

'The artist says that it shows the Goupil Gallery (William Marchant & Co), with the Goupil’s bearded doorman in the background. [Roberts] is himself on the right, waiting anxiously for the collector to make up his mind' – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue
PROVENANCE: Purchased from the artist by Ernest Cooper > Sotheby's 11 Nov. 1987 (£8,000) > private collection, London
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Galleries 1923, Grosvenor House 1923, Edinburgh 1924, Tate Gallery 1945, Arts Council 1948, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972
REPRODUCED: Roberts, Paintings 1917–1958, p. 24, where dated 1921 despite a visible inscription of '1923'