Roberts Goodridge

Goodridge Roberts (1904-1974)

One of the great Canadian painters, he was born in The Barbados, where his parents were on a short vacation, the son of Theodore Goodridge Roberts, poet and novelist, and Frances Seymour Allen.

Studied at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Art Students’ League in New York under John Sloan, Boardman Robinson and Max Weber. In 1932 he held his first one-man show at the Arts Club of Montreal which was organized by Ernst Neumann who had been a fellow student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. John Lyman purchased a drawing from the exhibition and gave Roberts his first critical recognition. Roberts became a member of the Contemporary Art Society (1939) In 1935 he moved to Montreal where he painted, lectured and taught art privately. Throughout his career, he exhibited on numerous occasions and received many honors. In 1952 he was elected Associate Member of the Royal Canadian Academy and in 1956 he was elected full member.

Roberts’ place in painting is measured as much by his portraits, figures and still lifes as by his landscapes. Out of the few elements to hand in the studio (Jars, flowers, fruits, books…), he builds his melodies of color and form. The figure paintings are calm in their stillness and in their utter simplicity, human but untroubled by emotion, timeless. Goodridge Roberts stands alone in Canadian painting

                                                Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Colin S. Macdonald, Vol 7.