Arthur Spencer Roberts (1920-1997) - 1977 Graphite Drawing Tawny Owlets

Description

A very fine and meticulously detailed graphite drawing with coloured pencil by the listed artist Arthur Spencer Roberts (1920-1997), depicting two tawny owlets perched on a branch. The artist has a particularly high level of proficiency in the medium. Well-presented in a washline mount and gilt wooden frame, as shown. Signed, inscribed and dated on the reverse. On wove.

Condition

In very good condition overall. There is some minor surface discolouration and mount burn. The frame has only very minor scuffing.

Size

18.8 x 26.8cm (7.4" x 10.6")
Framed Size: 39.8 x 46.6cm (15.7" x 18.3")

Artist Biography

Spencer Roberts, as he was known, was born in Cork, Ireland, and lived in Glasgow, and later Hastings in Sussex. At the age of seventeen having recovered from a childhood bout of tuberculosis, he became a skilful swimmer to the extent that he was selected for the 1939 Olympic Team for 100m freestyle. The onset of World War II, however, caused the event to be cancelled. He attended the Hastings School of Art under Philip Cole and Percy Badham. He was awarded a scholarship to the RCA, but again World War II intervened. He was called up and between 1940-46, he served variously in India and Burma, throughout which he constantly carried paper, pencils and watercolours.

At the end of the war, Roberts returned to Hastings Art School until 1948, from there he went to Brighton College of Art where he received a teaching diploma and then taught at Hastings School, and Vancouver University as a lecturer in History of Art. He also while in Canada, found work as a commercial artist for the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver where he drew adverts for items ranging from lingerie to artworks. He returned to England in 1957 and for eight years taught maladjusted children, using art as therapy, at the Down School, Bexhill. A specialist in wildlife pictures his work has been reproduced in prints form and one of his commissions includes a mural for the zoo owner John Aspinall located at Lympne, Kent and depicting over two-hundred species of jungle animals. He exhibited in America at the Armand Hammer gallery in New York and in London at Belgrave Gallery in 1977. A posthumous exhibition of his work was held by Nicholas Bowlby in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 2002. Hastings Museum and Art Gallery have an example of his work.