Goodridge Roberts

Canadian, 1904 - 1974

Biographyb. Sep. 24, 1904, d. Jan. 28, 1974//William Goodridge Roberts well-known Canadian artist of landscape, still-life and human figure painting, attended the ╔cole des beaux-arts in Montreal (1923-1925) and the Art Students' League in New York (1927-1929). He was the first artist-in-residence at Queen's University (1933-1936) where he gave art classes, lectures on art appreciation and arranged a series of exhibitions. He moved to Montreal in 1936 and after trying to support himself from the sale of his work alone, he founded the Roberts-Neumann School of Art with Ernst Neumann (1907-1956). He later established a pattern of teaching at the Art Association of Montreal School of Art and Design (1939-1943; 1945-1949) and spending the summer months painting in rural Quebec, predominately the Eastern Townships, the Laurentians and the Outaouais, and at Georgian Bay. Roberts became a charter member of the Eastern Group (1938), a charter member of the Contemporary Arts Society, and was elected to membership of both the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (all in 1939). In 1952 Roberts' work was chosen, together with that of David Milne (1882-1953), Emily Carr (1871-1945), and Alfred Pellan (1906-1988), for Canada's first exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 1953 he was awarded a Canadian Government overseas fellowship to work and travel in France and in 1954, under the patronage of the Canadian Embassy, his work was shown at the Galerie R.Creuse, Paris. Roberts was appointed the first resident-artist at the University of New Brunswick in 1959 and awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University in 1960.

He was a founding member along with John Lyman of the Contemporary Arts Society of Canada which encouraged Canadian artists to look to subjects other than those of the Group of Seven and to approach painting with a modern outlook gaining influence from European Post Impressionist artists. He is known for being one of the few Canadian artists who gave equal emphasis on still life, portraiture, and landscape.

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