Sold for: $29,250

PROVENANCE
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Sandra Paikowsky, Goodridge Roberts 1904 - 1974, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1998, page 191

Goodridge Roberts worked from the physical reality of three primary areas of subject matter – landscape, portrait and still life. However, he had a unique ability to infuse these universal subjects with his own distinct expressionistic brush-strokes and painterly sensitivities. Sandra Paikowsky quotes the poet Neufville Shaw, who wrote that Roberts’s “interiors cluttered with all the drifting paraphernalia of life, are testimonials, not to geography or to interior decoration, but to the deep and clear personality of their creator.” In this work, the still life becomes partially a self-portrait through the inclusion of Roberts’s personal belongings in this private environment – paintbrushes, knife, easel and teapot – all recurring objects throughout his body of still lifes. Adding to the privacy of this work is the closed door, further reinforcing the notion that this is a personal and isolated setting. Oranges, Daffodils and Easel is an important work that showcases the skillful achievements of one of Canada’s great modernist painters and the artistic environment he was so fully devoted to.

A very similar work from the same year is reproduced on the cover of Goodridge Roberts 1904 - 1974 by Paikowsky.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars