Artwork by William Goodridge Roberts,  Laurentian Landscape, 1961

Goodridge Roberts
Laurentian Landscape, 1961

oil on board
signed lower right; titled to exhibition label on the reverse; Estate Inventory Number 868 inscribed on the reverse
32 x 48 ins ( 81.3 x 121.9 cms )

Auction Estimate: $15,000.00$10,000.00 - $15,000.00

Price Realized $11,800.00
Sale date: November 19th 2019

Provenance:
Collection of the artist’s family
Exhibited:
Goodridge Roberts, Festival Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, n.d.
Included in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario and chosen by the artist’s family as a representation of Goodridge Roberts’ mastery of the Laurentian terrain, this painting hung prominently in the Roberts home. The Roberts family collection consists of artwork
from the painter’s estate as well as select work sourced through auction and private sale avenues, with an aim to assemble a collection of work that best represents the career of the artist.

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William Goodridge Roberts
(1904 - 1974) Canadian Group of Painters, RCA

Roberts was born in Barbados in 1904 to a prominent Canadian literary family. His father, Theodore, was a poet, novelist, and journalist. Roberts began his studies at Montreal's Ecole des Beaux-Arts but, encouraged by his art-critic aunt, Mary Fanton Roberts, he enrolled at New York's Art Students League. His New York schooling would prove to be a major influence on his career.

During the 1930s, Roberts lived, painted, and taught in Ontario. He was the very first artist-in-residence at Queens University in Kingston. Refusing to incorporate nationalist content into his work, Roberts became recognized for his modernist approach. In the 1940s, Roberts moved to Montreal and continued painting and teaching. He was admired by Quebec's francophone art community who saw in his work a reflection of the modernist figurative tradition from France, known in Montreal as "living art." His works were equally divided into the themes of landscapes, portraits and still lifes; all are textbook examples of each style. The artist's last major retrospective was held at the National Gallery of Canada in 1969. He died in January 1974.