AN ENGLISH CUBIST
WILLIAM ROBERTS:
The Temptation of St Anthony
+ studies
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 Temptation of St Anthony – study, 1950–51
Pencil, 17.8 cm x 12.7 cm
PROVENANCE: Estate of John David Roberts, accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate 2007 (T12702)
*
The Temptation of St Anthony – study, 1950–51
Watercolour and pencil, 35 cm x 26.3 cm
PROVENANCE: Ernest Cooper > Sotheby's 2 May 1990 (£4,638)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Southampton 1957 (no further details),Worthing 1972, Gillian Jason Gallery 1992
*
The Temptation of St Anthony, 1950–51
Oil on canvas (‘painted on a canvas supplied by the Arts Council’ – Tate Gallery 1965 catalogue), 150 cm x 114 cm
According to his biographer Athanasius, when the later St Anthony (c. 251–356) decided to give up his possessions and devote himself to God, ‘the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not endure to see such a resolution in a youth, but endeavoured to carry out against him what he had been wont to effect against others.’ After various stratagems had failed, ‘at length putting his trust in the weapons which are “in the navel of his belly” and boasting in them – for they are his first snare for the young – he attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day … The one would suggest foul thoughts and the other counter them with prayers: the one fire him with lust the other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting. And the devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Antony. But he … passed through the temptation unscathed’ (Vita Antonii 5, tr. H. Ellershaw, 1892).
PROVENANCE: Purchased from the Royal Academy by Ernest Cooper (July 1951, £500) > Sotheby’s 21 Nov. 1973 (£5,000) > Christie’s 27 Nov. 1997 (£19,550) > Tate Gallery (T07391, purchased 1998)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Royal Academy 1951, Leicester Galleries (2) 1952, Tate Gallery 1965, Worthing 1972, Paris 1984, Serpentine Gallery 1985, Newcastle 2004
Home page | Chronology | Bibliography | Collections | Exhibitions
News | Gallery | Auction results | The artist’s house | Contact
List of works illustrated on the site
Catalogue raisonné:
chronological | alphabetical