William Roberts, 92: Welsh painter
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William Roberts, painter, born December 21 1907; died March 11 2000
Will Roberts, who has died in Neath aged 92, was one of Wales's foremost
painters. While always associated with south Wales, he was born in Ruabon,
and his work drew deeply on his family's roots in the county of
Denbighshire.
by Rian Evans
Wednesday March 15, 2000
Will Roberts, who has died in Neath aged 92, was one of Wales's foremost
painters. While always associated with south Wales, he was born in Ruabon,
and his work drew deeply on his family's roots in the county of
Denbighshire. His prime interest was the human figure; his concern was to
convey the rhythms and tensions of movement in a way that defined both the
figures and the landscape in which they were set.
There was always a dark and rich resonance in his broadly expressionist
style and - importantly in a Wales now re-examining its visual culture - his
farmers and agricultural labourers, the old men in the reading room of Neath
library and the steelworkers, all had about them an intrinsic truth.
While his gift for draughtsmanship was evident from an early age, Roberts
attributed his capacity to convey the essence of a figure to his studies in
the life-room at Swansea school of art, where he was a part-time student for
four years from 1928. Given the need for a steady income to support his
widowed mother, and later on his wife and daughter, Roberts felt that
realistically he could not survive as a painter.
Yet neither teaching nor commercial art seemed an acceptable compromise. In
retrospect, Roberts believed that it was working by day as a jeweller and
watchmaker, and at every other waking moment as a painter, that allowed him
to develop as an artist. He wanted to be free to live and breathe art; he
would paint into the early hours and return to the shop next morning
spiritually and physically refreshed.
People fascinated him. Customers examining a brooch or watch at the counter
would be unaware that they were being quietly observed. Should a strong
jawline or gently flowing movement demand to be put down on paper, Roberts
would reach for his sketchbook as soon as the shopdoor closed behind them.
During the war, he served as a Royal Air Force technician, and it was
typical of his lifelong enthusiasm and keenness of mind that he saw the art
in machines. Delighting in precision work, the intricacies of dealing with
RAF "kites", oxygen equipment or fine jewellery were one to him. Natural
musicianship - he was an accomplished violinist - was also part of his
makeup. Stationed in Warwickshire, he continued to draw and paint in
watercolours; teaching at Nuneaton art school on days off was a lifeline.
After demobilisation he returned to Wales, determined to make the transition
to painting in oils. He took up a friend's suggestion that he meet the
Polish artist Josef Herman (Obituary, February 22, 2000), then living in
Ystradgynlais. Talk of the French expressionist Georges Rouault bonded them,
and a routine was established. Once a week, Roberts would go to Herman's
studio, the ballroom of the Penybont Inn, sometimes working at a canvas as
Herman urged him to "let the paint flow", sometimes talking and knocking up
simple wooden frames for the paintings.
The two men cut very different figures - Roberts tall and fair, Herman short
and dark - and they came from utterly different worlds. But the passion was
mutual, and the relationship further fuelled Roberts's self-belief as an
artist.
He always acknowledged Herman's importance in broadening his outlook, yet
their association too often clouded perception of Roberts's very forceful
and characteristic qualities. Sharing a name with London Group vorticist and
Royal Academician William Roberts (even when it led to reports of his death
being "greatly exaggerated") was never a difficulty; being bracketed with
Herman was probably harder. Winning the Byng-Stamper prize in 1962 was a
milestone for Roberts and, by 1969, solo exhibitions in London and Cardiff
enhanced his growing reputation.
In retirement, the jewellery shop became a larger studio, and the compulsion
to paint could be indulged fulltime - and, over the next 20 years, Roberts
had the satisfaction of being recognised as one of Wales's most important
painters. In 1994, a major retrospective exhibition, seen across Wales as
well as at the national eisteddfod in his hometown, showed the full range
and diversity of his art, with portraiture, landscapes, flower paintings and
fine drawings.
The national library of Wales in Aberystywth holds a collection of some 600
of his drawings, their bold, sweeping lines eloquent testimony of his
talent. In recent months, he was still painting, relishing the new challenge
of gouache, while collaborating with the library and selecting drawings for
a book and exhibition.
Roberts's dignified manner masked a sharp intelligence, warmth and sense of
fun. Painting - like everything about him - came from the heart. He is
survived by his wife, Phyllis, and his daughter.