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William Roberts R.A. (British, 1895-1980) Classical Scene 19.4 x 26.8 cm. (7 5/8 x 10 1/2 in.) (sheet); 17.4 x 22 cm. (6 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.) (image) (Executed circa 1920-23) image 1

William Roberts R.A. (British, 1895-1980) Classical Scene 19.4 x 26.8 cm. (7 5/8 x 10 1/2 in.) (sheet); 17.4 x 22 cm. (6 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.) (image) (Executed circa 1920-23) image 2

Lot 35^AR

William Roberts R.A.
(British, 1895-1980)
Classical Scene 19.4 x 26.8 cm. (7 5/8 x 10 1/2 in.) (sheet); 17.4 x 22 cm. (6 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.) (image)

Modern British and Irish Art

30 June 2021, 14:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £12,112.50 inc. premium

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William Roberts R.A. (British, 1895-1980)

Classical Scene
chalk
19.4 x 26.8 cm. (7 5/8 x 10 1/2 in.) (sheet); 17.4 x 22 cm. (6 3/4 x 8 5/8 in.) (image)
Executed circa 1920-23

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist's family, 1985
With Gillian Jason Gallery, London
Lord and Lady Neill, thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, William Roberts, R.A.: Watercolours, Drawings and Etchings, 9 July–29 September 1985, cat.no.7
Probably London, Gillian Jason, William Roberts 1895–1980: Pictures Pure and Pagan, 15 September-8 October 1993

The Cambridge 1985 catalogue described this 'Unidentified classical scene' as 'perhaps a study for a Return of Odysseus', though it is possibly more likely that it depicts a simplified version of the start of Book III of The Odyssey, when Odysseus' son, Telemachus, arrives at Pylus in search of information about his father, translated by William Cowper in the 1910 Everyman's Library edition as follows:

The sun, emerging from the lucid waves,
Ascended now the brazen vault with light
For the inhabitants of earth and heav'n,
When in their bark at Pylus they arrived,
City of Neleus. On the shore they found
The people sacrificing; bulls they slew
Black without spot, to Neptune azure-hair'd.
On ranges nine of seats they sat; each range
Received five hundred, and to each they made
Allotment equal of nine sable bulls.

Another possibility is that the picture depicts the point in the seventh labour of Hercules in Greek mythology when, having travelled to Crete to capture the bull that has been wreaking havoc on the island, Hercules has subdued the beast and is about to sail away with it.

The Gillian Jason Gallery sold the picture as The Golden Calf, though the coastal setting and the boat seem to have nothing to do with the biblical story in Exodus 32.

We are grateful to David Cleall and Bob Davenport for compiling this catalogue entry.

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