William Roberts 1895-1980
Soldiers Hauling a Howitzer
Watercolour and pen and ink on paper.
7 x 14 inches
Signed and dated 1917.
Exhibited:
The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, March-May 2004 Graves Gallery, Sheffield, June-Sept 2004
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Oct 2008- Jan 2009. Avant-Garde and the Great War
Included and illustrated in the Catalogue Raisonne of The William Roberts Society, researched and compiled by David Cleall edited by Bob Davenport. Last revised 10th January 2008. See under Gunners Pulling a Cannon at Ypres, aka Soldiers Hauling a Howitzer dated 1917.
The present work is one of at least three versions of this subject (Andrew Gibbon-Williams) revisited by Roberts during the course of his life. The others are undated and may have been executed later. This version is believed to be the first. It is the smallest of the three known, and unsquared. The uneven application of pigments at edges of the work is similar to other early works such as "Execution in a Canyon" circa 1919.
References: William Roberts by Andrew Heard. Illustrated on page 47. isbn 0701701670 1914!
The Avant-Garde and the Great War, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Illustrated.
Bibliography. William Roberts ARA (exh. cat. by R. Alley, London, Tate, 1965) R. Cork: Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age, 2 vols (London, 1975–6) William Roberts RA (exh. cat. by E. J. Stanford, Reading, Mus. & A.G., 1983) William Roberts: An Artist and his Family (exh. cat. by R. Gibson, London, N.P.G., 1984)
