William Roberts, R.A.

Cooling Galleries, London Artists' Association, London, where acquired by Wilfrid A. Evill November 1931 for £31.10.0, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost in 1963

London, Cooling Galleries, London Artists' Association, Recent Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts, October - November 1931, cat. no.2 (11); 
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Neue Englische Kunst, June - July 1932, cat. no.86;
London, Leicester Galleries, A Selection of Pictures from the Collection of Wilfrid A. Evill, October 1952, cat. no.18;
Hull, Ferens Art Gallery, Exhibition by Members of the London Artists' Association, August - September 1953, cat. no.51;
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Pictures, Drawings, Water Colours and Sculpture, April - May 1961, (part I- section 2) cat. no.11 (as Cafe Scene);
Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, June - August 1965, cat. no.150 (as Discussion in a Cafe);
London, Tate Gallery, William Roberts ARA: Retrospective Exhibition, 20th November - 19th December 1965, cat. no.40 (as The Restaurant), with Arts Council Tour to Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester;
Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, William Roberts: England at Play, 20th January - 20th March 2007.

Andrew Gibbon Williams, William Roberts: An English Cubist, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2004, p.76, illustrated p.78, fig.54;
William Roberts Society Newsletter, March 2011 (unpaginated).

The colours, notably the green and white pigments, are much brighter, richer, more vibrant and less yellow than the catalogue illustration suggests. Please view the work in our ecatalogue online for an updated illustration. Original canvas. There are a few isolated minor spots of craquelure visible upon close inspection, including to the table cloth and to the armpit of the woman in green. There is a faint very old surface abrasion below the upper centre edge. There is some very minor surface abrasion to one or two places along the left and right edges. The surface has recently been cleaned and is in generally good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an uneven varnish which makes the reading difficult to interpret. There are a few small isolated specks of fluorescence which may be old retouchings. Held in a stained wood frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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After joining the London Artist's association in 1927, Roberts held two one-man shows at the Cooling Galleries, the present work being included in the second of these exhibitions. While a somewhat odd choice of venue, as the Cooling Galleries at that time specialized in Old Master paintings, both shows were extremely successful. Roberts was from the start resentful of the fees due to the Association, but the exhibitions did bring in much needed income for the artist and his family, who had struggled financially following the First World War. Key was the introduction of Roberts' work to a new group of patrons and clients, including Wilfrid Evill, who purchased the present work from the show and was thereafter an avid Roberts collector.

Having left the Slade in the summer of 1913, Roberts became embroiled in the Bohemian culture developing around Fitzrovia and Soho, where he and his former Slade classmates would spend the evenings in crowded night clubs soaking up the new wave American influences of jazz and ragtime. Attracted to the carefree feel, vivacious energy and valuable potential contacts, Roberts also began frequenting the Café Royal and La Tour Eiffel ('The Tower') with Wyndham Lewis. The Tower in particular was a meeting point for the artistic avant-garde, having been patronized by Whistler and Sickert earlier in the century, it then became a favourite of Augustus John. Following the war the active breaking of social restrictions meant there was always a spectacle on view, and Robert's taste for these uproarious environments only intensified. He and his wife Sarah, whom he married in 1922, were particularly fond of the Harlequin Tea Rooms off Regent Street, and could frequently be found there throughout the 1920s (fig. 1).

The boisterous atmosphere, the packed noisy interiors, the movement, and the hustle and bustle of crowds, provided the perfect inspiration for Roberts, as he, like so many British artists of the time, was looking to move into a more figurative vein. He had a keen eye for detail and observation, and using the distinctive style he developed between the wars was able to articulate the intricacies of social interaction through gesture and facial expression. 

Here this lovely documentary quality is in full play. Stylized menus and a wine bottle perch on a crisp table cloth, the fur collar and stylish cloche hats worn by the well dressed ladies in the foreground providing particular visual appeal. The ladies' elegant gestures are immediately readable as their long and delicate fingers daintily clasp cigarettes and espresso, their gesticulations animating their ongoing discussion. Behind them are a group of men, and Roberts carefully builds the sense of movement by ensuring that the composition never allows the viewer's eye to settle for long in one spot, forcing our gaze to zigzag through the group. Moving cyclically we notice, for example, the man who raises his hand eagerly seeking out either the bill or more drinks, the fellow behind him holds a beer bottle as he attempts to rub the smoke out of his eye, as well as the blue suited waiter who focuses intently on balancing his very full pints as he shuffles through the crowd, bringing us deftly back to the scene in the foreground. 

Roberts' ability to manage this densely packed composition is a stylistic quality carried over from his early Vorticist days. Having become doubtful about the possibilities the style afforded him, Robert's began to drift away from his Vorticist associates in the early 1920s. His last truly Vorticist centred work was exhibited in the Group X show of  1920, but as we see here, certain aspects of the Vorticist manner would undeniably remain with him throughout his career.

A watercolour study for the present work is in the collection of Bristol Art Gallery (titled The Discussion).

We are grateful to David Cleall for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.