AN ENGLISH CUBIST

WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Female and Male Life Studies in Shared Mount

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.

Female and Male Life Studies in Shared Mount
Pencil on paper (two sheets, torn), 13 cm x 9.5 cm and 18 cm x 13 cm

'This sketch was made by William Roberts at the Westminster [correctly Central] School of Art where he taught. He tore up the drawing and threw the pieces on the floor where they were picked up by his colleague, Bernard Meninsky who put them together again' – label on reverse of frame quoted in Roseberys 2018 sale catalogue.
'Meninsky, when he was teaching at the Central, used to go crawling round Bobby's [Roberts's] life class after he'd left, asking the students if they’d give him the sketches Bobby made on the corners of their life drawings – it was the way Bobby used to teach. They’re lovely little things. Some of the students would cut them off and let him have them, and he'd go home and paste them up in an album' – Sarah Roberts quoted in Paucker, Sarah: An Anecdotal Memoir, p. 47.
PROVENANCE: Nora Meninsky > Luke Gertler > ? > Roseberys London, 26 Sept. 2018 (estimate £600–£800; unsold)