© The Estate of John David Roberts. Reproduced by Courtesy of the William Roberts Society
The Rhine Boat
about 1928
This painting was inspired by a boat trip made by the artist down the river Rhine in the summer of 1928. The style owes much to the highly formalised manner adopted by Fernand Léger and his circle, sometimes referred to - for obvious reasons - as 'Tubism'. During the 1920s, Roberts painted many pictures of people engaged in ordinary social activities such as playing, relaxing and working. He would establish the composition in drawings, creating strong formal rhythms and rhymes, and would then square these up and methodically transfer the design onto canvas.
