Lot 19
WILLIAM GOODRIDGE ROBERTS, R.C.A. (1904-1974)
Additional Images
Provenance:
The Art Emporium, Vancouver, BC;
Private Collection, Toronto, ON;
Heffel Fine Art, Toronto, ON, 25 November 2010, lot 67;
Private Collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
Though best known for his richly painted landscapes, Goodridge Roberts’ oeuvre emphasized three areas equally: the figure, the landscape and the nude. With a wink, Goodridge Roberts combines two of these interests into one composition by hanging a landscape painting behind his model.
With its frontal composition and warm palette, this is a characteristic nude for the artist. Biographer James Borcoman writes that, increasingly, at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s, Roberts paints pictures that are emotional, expressionistic outpourings: “Colour is more strident than in the past. The brushwork is more dominant and its gestural quality is invested with urgency,” the same qualities that appear in this lot.
Literature:
James Borcoman, Goodridge Roberts, A Retrospective (The National Gallery of Canada: Ottawa, 1969), 42-43.