William Goodridge Roberts (1904–1974) was a Canadian painter known for his landscape paintings,
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
s, figure paintings and interiors. He was also a teacher.
Career
Goodridge Roberts was the son of poet and novelist George Edward Theodore Goodridge Roberts and Frances Seymour Allen. Roberts was born in
Bridgetown
Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Island ...
,
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
, in 1904 while his parents were on holiday from their
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
home.
Roberts studied at the
École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
and at the
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
with
John Sloan
John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...
,
Boardman Robinson
Boardman Michael Robinson (1876–1952) was a Canadian-American painter, illustrator and cartoonist.
Biography
Early years
Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before mov ...
and
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
(1926–1928). He moved to Ottawa in 1930, where he exhibited his work, and opened a summer school for painting in nearby Wakefield, in the Gatineau Valley.
In 1932, Roberts held his first solo exhibition at Montreal's Arts Club, where he came to the attention of
John Lyman.
From 1933 to 1936 he was the resident artist at Queen's University, afterwards moving to Montreal. In 1938, Roberts, joined the
Eastern Group of Painters
The Eastern Group of Painters was a group of Canadian artists formed in 1938 in Montreal, Quebec for exhibition purposes and showing together as a group till 1950. It included Montreal artists whose common interest was painting and an art for art' ...
as a charter member, and in 1939, again as a charter member, joined the
Contemporary Arts Society The Contemporary Arts Society was founded by John Lyman in 1939 to promote modern art in Montreal, at a time when Canada was dominated by academic art.
Lyman was the Society's first president. The additional officers were vice-president Paul-Émil ...
, as well as exhibiting at the
New York World's Fair. He taught at the
Art Association of Montreal
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...
from 1940 to 1952. During the period from 1943 to 1945 he was an
Official War Artist for the
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
, stationed in England.
In 1952, works by Roberts along with those of
Emily Carr
Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...
,
David Milne and
Alfred Pellan
Alfred Pellan (born Alfred Pelland; 16 May 1906 – 31 October 1988) was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting.
Biography
Alfred Pelland was born in Quebec City on 16 May 1906. His mother, Régina Damphousse, died when ...
represented Canada at the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
.
A scholarship was awarded (in 1953) by the Canadian government to allow Roberts to study painting in France. Then in 1959 he won the Glaxebrook award at the
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
for a landscape painting. This year (1959) until 1960 Roberts was the first resident artist at the
University of New Brunswick
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...
. In 1964, he won the
A. J. Casson Award, the annual "Open Water" competition organized by the
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (in French: La Société Canadienne de Peintres en Aquarelle), founded in 1925 is considered to be Canada's official national watercolour Society. Since the 1980s the Society has enjoyed Vice-regal ...
(CSPWC). In 1969, he was a recipient of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
and was given a traveling
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibition by the National Gallery of Canada, an unusual honour for a living artist at the time.
He was made a member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
History 1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...
(1956).
He was also a member of the
Canadian Group of Painters
The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933.
Formation
The Canadian Group of Painters succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wil ...
. Among the people who praised Roberts` work was the well-known American art critic,
Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...
, who, in 1963, said that his work had been the portal through which he became interested in Canadian art.
Following his death after a lengthy illness, his work was the subject of several museum solo exhibitions with publications, including a touring retrospective in 1998 titled ''Goodridge Roberts Revealed'', curated by Sandra Paikowski.
See also
*
Canadian official war artists
*
War artist
*
War art
Military art is art with a military subject matter, regardless of its style or medium. The battle scene is one of the oldest types of art in developed civilizations, as rulers have always been keen to celebrate their victories and intimidate po ...
Notes
Bibliography
*
*''Canadian Painting 1939 to 1963'', an exhibition organized by the
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
at the Tate Gallery London, 1964
*
External links
BiographyArt Gallery of OntarioGoodridge Roberts, Lethbridge College Buchanan Art CollectionCollection Musée national des beaux-arts du Québecat the
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
, Ottawa, Ontario
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Goodridge
1904 births
1974 deaths
20th-century Canadian painters
Canadian male painters
Canadian landscape painters
World War II artists
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Canadian war artists
École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni
Officers of the Order of Canada
Barbadian emigrants to Canada
20th-century Canadian male artists