Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Sutton, QC

Note:

The years 1938 and 1939 marked a breakthrough for Roberts. The artist began pursuing a new simplification of form, and an interest in the juxtaposition of light and dark planes, both which introduced a new rhythm to his work. Originally applied to figural and still life works, Roberts began applying these visual codes to his landscapes.

Regardless of subject, Roberts sought to explore the relationships of shape and colour, though never at the expense of mood or atmosphere. Of his work, biographer James Borcoman notes that “much of the conviction, the rightness, the inevitability, in a painting by Roberts is due to his ability to capture and express the characteristics of a particular tree or place, the exact shape and volume of a lemon or flower. The underlying reality, the recognized experience, the accuracy in the presentation of well-known things, taken for granted, allow the spectator to shift his attention to what the artist has done to the colour, brushwork, and arrangement.” [1]

[1] James Borcoman, Goodridge Roberts, A Retrospective (The National Gallery of Canada: Ottawa, 1969), 31.