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.

Notes

Bibliography

* *''Canadian Painting 1939 to 1963'', an exhibition organized by the

at the Tate Gallery London, 1964 *

External links

Biography

Art Gallery of Ontario

Goodridge Roberts, Lethbridge College Buchanan Art Collection

Collection Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
at the

, 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

Career

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links