AN ENGLISH CUBIST




WILLIAM ROBERTS:

Torture



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.


Torture

Torture, 1925–6
Pen and ink, 28.5 cm x 19.5 cm

Unused tailpiece drawing for Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (annotated by Roberts, 'Page 416'): 'They kicked me to the head of the stairs, and stretched me over a guard-bench, pommelling me. Two knelt on my ankles, bearing down on the back of my knees, while two more twisted my wrists till they cracked, and then crushed them and my neck against the wood. The corporal had run downstairs; and now came back with a whip of the Circassian . . . and then he began to lash me madly across and across with all his might, while I locked my teeth to endure this thing which lapped itself like flaming wire about my body' (ch. 80).
PROVENANCE: Bayard L. Kilgour Jr > Houghton Library, Harvard University (1966, MS Eng 1653, no. 46)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: National Portrait Gallery 1988




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