William Roberts, R.A.

Leicester Galleries, London, where acquired by David Carr and thence by descent to the present owner

London, Leicester Galleries, Artists of Fame and Promise, July 1946.

Original canvas. The paint surface is stable and the work appears in excellent overall condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held under glass in a painted wooden frame; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
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Roberts' love of the everyday is a constant throughout his career. Any place where people gather, formally or not, was a subject to be explored, and thus be it a bus stop, a market, a bar or even housewives beating carpets on a step, he draws from this both compositional and narrative material. Where figures are gathered, the potential for overlapping and interweaving them offers a rich vein of possibility, so it is hardly surprising to see how often he incorporates mirrors into his paintings. In The Barber's Shop, three customers sit in the chairs, swathed in the white gowns protecting their clothes. Two are getting haircuts, the third is being shaved. The central customer and his barber are reflected in the large mirror, opening up the composition and offering a balance to the line of figures down the right hand side of the canvas. The whole is suffused with an air of calm, of quiet dedication to these simple and oft-repeated male rites. Whilst the barbers concentrate on their craft, their customers relax.

Yet this was a painting produced at the end of WWII, after six years of war, tension, threat and death. The Nation's men and women had thrown themselves into the effort to resist, be that in uniform or on the civilian front, and no part of the country had been untouched. Roberts' palette is almost always remarkable for its brilliance and variety; rich colours and tones are skilfully manipulated. Here this is not the case. These are deliberately wartime colours, the drab greys, greens and browns of economy paints, of municipal hallways. The cuffs and trousers that poke out from under the central customer's gown are khaki: this is a man still in uniform. His neighbour wears a light blue-grey, perhaps he is an airman? Are these all men beginning the long process of returning, both physically and mentally, to civilian life, a simple visit to the peace and calm of the barber's shop marking a step back to normality?

Roberts had himself seen service in WWI and his images of that conflict rank alongside contemporaries such as Nash and Wyndham Lewis, but in WWII he produced only sporadic wartime subjects as a result of difficult relations with the WAAC, but did produce some notable works, especially Munitions Factory of 1940 and The Control Room, Civil Defence Headquarters  of 1942 (both in Salford Museums & Art Gallery). The Barber's Shop has similarities with both these large paintings but its tone is very different, suggesting the collective sigh of relief as the prospect of normal life returns.

Apparently unknown since its original purchase, The Barber's Shop was originally purchased by David Carr (1915-1968). A student at Cedric Morris' East Anglian School of Painting and contemporary of Lucian Freud, Carr had carefully collected both artists he knew and the work of those further afield, building up a formidable collection, including major works by Lowry, Freud, Clough, and Roberts amongst others (see note to lot 20) . A key figure in the foundation of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society and its first President, Carr was an active campaigner for the cause of modern and progressive art in the 1950s and 1960s as well as being an accomplished if now little seen painter whose apparent reluctance to exhibit and untimely early death has allowed him to become unjustifiably forgotten.

A watercolour study for this painting, squared for transfer, was exhibited at The Hamet Gallery, 1972.

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