1895
| 5 June: William Patrick Roberts born at 44 Blackstone Road, London Fields, Hackney,
London E8, the third of four children (three sons and a daughter) of Edward Roberts,
a carpenter/handyman from Co. Cork in Ireland, and his wife, Emily, née Collins,
whom Edward had met in London. (The family later moved to 20 West Side – date unknown.)
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1898/9?–1909
| Attends Gayhurst Road School.
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1900
| 29 July: Sarah Kramer – later Sarah Roberts – born in Leeds, the daughter of Russian émigré Jews, Max and Cecilia Kramer, and sister
of the artist Jacob Kramer (1892–1962).
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1907?
| WR's school allows him to spend extra time on art classes.
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1908?
| Attends Queen's Road School for additional art classes.
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1909
| Leaves school and is apprenticed to Sir Joseph Causton Ltd, a poster designing and
advertising firm.
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1909–10
| Attends evening classes run by William Robins at St Martin's School of Art, Endell
Street, London WC2.
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1910
| Wins a London County Council (LCC) scholarship to study art at the Slade School, remaining
there for three years and becoming friends with Jacob Kramer, a fellow student.
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1911
| Contributes a panel showing carpenters at work, painted in egg tempera, to decorations for the walls of a girls club in Lillie Road,
Fulham.
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1912
| Awarded an internal Slade scholarship.
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| Summer: Stays with Cyril Butler (a friend of Slade principal Henry Tonks) at Bourton House near Shrivenham, Berkshire.
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1913
| First commission – from Sir Cyril Butler for six drawings of London markets (only two of which were
completed).
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| Awarded the Melvill Nettleship Prize for figure composition.
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| Leaves the Slade; travels in France and Italy.
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| Autumn: Borrows room in Old Cumberland Hay Market, north of Regent's Park, and paints
his first 'Abstract' pictures.
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|
| Recommended by Laurence Binyon of the British Museum Print Room to Roger Fry; starts
work at Fry's Omega Workshop in Fitzroy Square, London W1.
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| December: His earliest surviving oil painting, The Return of Ulysses, is exhibited at the New English Art Club.
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1914
| January: Exhibits with Roger Fry's Grafton Group at the Alpine Club Gallery, London.
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|
| Meets Wyndham Lewis; leaves Omega Workshop and joins the circle of Lewis, Edward Wadsworth,
Frederick Etchells and Cuthbert Hamilton.
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|
| May/June: Exhibits eight works in the exhibition 'Twentieth-Century Art: A Review
of Modern Movements' at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.
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| June: contributes two illustrations – 'Dancers' and 'Religion' – to the first issue of Blast – the Review of the Great English Vortex (published 2 July) – and Wyndham Lewis prints his name as a signatory to the Vorticist manifesto.
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1915
| Sarah Kramer, visiting her brother in London during the school holidays, meets WR
with a group of Slade students in an ABC tea shop in Tottenham Court Road.
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| March: WR shows three works in the London Group exhibition at the Goupil Gallery,
London.
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| 15 April: WR's cubist drawing of St George and the Dragon appears in the London Evening News.
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| June/July: Shows six works in the Vorticist exhibition at the Doré Galleries, London.
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| July: Contributes two illustrations to Blast No. 2: 'Combat' and 'Drawing' ('Machine Gunners').
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| Fails to get accepted by the Artists' Rifles.
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| Works for some weeks in a munitions factory in Tufnell Park, London NW5.
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1916
| 4 April: Enlists in Royal Field Artillery (RFA) as a gunner (no.123744), having failed
to join Welch Regiment.
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| April: At 4th Depot RFA, Woolwich, London; then transferred to cavalry barracks, at
Weedon, Northamptonshire.
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| August: Spends embarkation leave at the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel, Percy Street, London W1, then reports to RFA Woolwich depot before in mid-August
embarking for Le Havre.
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| With his unit, joins 51st Brigade, RFA; takes course in signalling.
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| Late August/early September: Joins the gun batteries of 51st Brigade facing Vimy Ridge.
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| Late 1916?: Becomes an officer's batman for a time, including a week at Paris-Plage
near Boulougne.
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1917
| Early spring: Moves with the 51st Brigade to Arras.
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| Late autumn: Moves with 51st Brigade to Ypres sector, north of the Menin Ridge.
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| Late 1917: Receives letter from a friend, Captain Guy Baker, suggesting application
to Paul Konody, who is selecting artists to prepare war paintings for the Canadian
War Records Office.
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1918
| January: Two weeks' home leave, at Hackney and the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel; then back to France to rejoin 51st Brigade near Neuport.
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| Receives letter dated 28 December 1917 from the Canadian War Records Office about
painting battle pictures for the Canadian War Memorial Fund.
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| Early 1918: With 51st Brigade on the Somme at Etinehem near Albert.
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| April: While retreating with 51st Brigade to Messines in the Ypres sector, receives
summons to return to England as an official war artist for the Canadian War Records
Office.
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| 20 April: Arrives back in London, and is then joined by Sarah.
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| May: Approached by the British Ministry of Information to paint a picture for the
proposed Great War Hall of Remembrance.
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| Takes studio in Flood Street, Chelsea, to work on The First German Gas Attack at Ypres for the Canadian War Records Office.
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| Works on A Shell Dump, France for the Ministry of Information.
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| Winter: The First German Gas Attack at Ypres hangs with other Canadian-commissioned war paintings at the Royal Academy.
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1919
| 6 June: Son – John David Roberts – born at 54 Leigham Court Road, Streatham, London SW16; father's address given as
59 College Road, Chalk Farm, London NW3.
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| A Shell Dump, France included at the centre of a exhibition of memorial art at the Royal Academy.
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| Prepares designs for Edith Sitwell's Wheels and for Sitwell's 'French Art 1914–1919' exhibition.
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| September/October: Demobilised (date sometimes given as 15 October).
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| Autumn: Designs three panels for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel.
An advertisement for the Hôtel de la Tour Eiffel, mentioning Roberts's designs, in The Tyro, 1, 2 (1922)
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| Designs a cover for the December issue (no. 3) of the Coterie arts review (and later for the relaunched New Coterie in 1925–7).
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1920
| March: Takes part in Group X exhibition at Mansard Gallery, Heal's, London W1.
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| Told by Colin Gill, a former fellow student at the Slade, that T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') is seeking artists to make portrait drawings for
a book he is producing.
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| Meets T. E. Lawrence and starts work on drawings for the de-luxe edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom (published 1926).
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Early 1920s
| Spends some summers at T. E. Lawrence's cottage Clouds Hill, in Dorset.
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1921–2
| Prepares design for the cover of Fanfare.
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1922
| 28 June: Marries Sarah Kramer from 7 Springfield Mount, Leeds.
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| T. E. Lawrence commissions portrait illustrations for Seven Pillars of Wisdom and has his own portrait painted.
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1923
| November: First solo exhibition, at Chenil Galleries, London – 'Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts'.
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1924
| Commissioned by Frank Pick of the London Underground to prepare a large hoarding (The History of the Omnibus) for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924–6.
The Bus-stop, study for a poster, 1924
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1925
| Becomes a visiting teacher at the LCC Central School and continues there, apart from
the war years, until 1960.
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1926
| Publication of the de-luxe edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom,
including Roberts portraits and tailpieces.
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1927
| Joins the London Artists' Association.
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| Prepares jacket design for Rhys Davies's The Withered Root.
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| In August visits Germany with Rhys Davies, H. E. Bates, Charles Lahr and others.
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| Contributes etchings to a Harold Monro chapbook.
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1929
| Solo exhibition (sponsored by London Artists' Association) at the Cooling Galleries,
London.
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1931
| Another solo exhibition (sponsored by London Artists' Association) at the Cooling
Galleries, London – 'Recent Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts'.
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1932
| Shows work in the Venice Biennale.
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1933?
| The Robertses spend two–three weeks in a flat in Alicante, Spain, owned by the brother of family friend Agustín de Irízar, lecturer in Spanish at Leeds University.
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1934?
| London Artists' Association disbanded. Roberts transfers to Lefevre Gallery, London.
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1935
| February/March: Solo exhibition, Lefevre Gallery, London – 'New Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts'.
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1938
| March: Solo exhibition, Lefevre Gallery, London – 'Works by William Roberts'.
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1939
| Moves to Oxford shortly after the outbreak of war, remaining there until 1945. Teaches
one day a week at the Oxford Technical School.
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1940
| Appointed part-time war artist by the Artists Advisory Committee of the Ministry of
Information.
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1942
| July/August: Solo exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London – 'William Roberts'.
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1945
| October/November: Solo water-colour exhibition, Leicester Galleries, London – 'Drawings in Colour by William Roberts'.
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1945?
| Ernest Cooper, the owner of a number of health-food shops, starts buying WR's work and becomes
his principal patron, eventually owning 20 oils and 49 other works, mainly watercolours.
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1946
| Moves to 14 St Mark's Crescent, backing on to the canal near Regent's Park, London NW1, where he will live for the
rest of his life.
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1948
| Begins exhibiting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (subsequently shows there
every year until his death).
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1949
| November: Solo exhibition, Leicester Galleries, London – 'New Drawings, Satirical and Otherwise by William Roberts'.
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1951
| London Transport Board commissions a poster – London's Fairs – advertising fairs accessible by public transport.
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1956–8
| Publishes The Resurrection of Vorticism and the Apotheosis of Wyndham Lewis at the Tate – the first of five Vortex Pamphlets – in response to the Wyndham Lewis exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London. (Subsequent
Vortex Pamphlets appear later in 1956, in 1957 and in 1958.)
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1957
| Publishes Some Early Abstract and Cubist Work 1913–1920.
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1958
| February: Solo exhibition, Leicester Galleries, London – 'Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts'.
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| 25 April: Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy.
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1960
| Publishes Paintings 1917–1958 by William Roberts A.R.A.
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1961
| Receives an award from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 'in recognition of his artistic
achievement and his outstanding service to British painting'.
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1964
| Publishes
William Roberts A.R.A., Paintings and Drawings 1909–1964.
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1965
| Retrospective exhibition – 'William Roberts, A.R.A.' – organised by the Arts Council, at the Tate Gallery, London; WR designs catalogue cover.
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| Refuses OBE (earlier that year the Beatles had been awarded MBEs).
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1966
| 28 April: Elected a Royal Academician.
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| January/February: Tate retrospective exhibition travels to the Laing Art Gallery,
Newcastle, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.
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1967
| Exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery – 'William Roberts'.
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1969
| Publishes 8 Cubist Designs.
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| September: Solo exhibition at d'Offay Couper Gallery, London – 'William Roberts, R.A., Drawings and Watercolours 1915–1968'.
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1971
| Retrospective exhibition at Hamet Gallery, London, part of which is then shown at
the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter – 'William Roberts, R.A.: A Retrospective Exhibition'.
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| Exhibition at Gallery 27 Emporium Arcade, Nottingham – 'William Roberts R.A.'.
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| April: Retrospective exhibition at Hamet Gallery, London.
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1972
| Worthing Museum and Art Gallery – 'Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts' (from the collection of Ernest Cooper).
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| Exhibition at the Tib Lane Galleries, Manchester – 'Water-Colours by William Roberts'.
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1973
| Retrospective exhibition at Hamet Gallery, London – 'William Roberts, R.A.'.
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1974
| Publishes In Defence of English Cubists and Memories of the War to End War 1914–18.
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1976
| Publishes Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts R.A.
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| Retrospective exhibition at Parkin Gallery, London – 'William Roberts R.A.'.
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1977
| Writes Early Years (published posthumously, in 1982).
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1979
| The Tate Gallery buys The Gutter from Ernest Cooper.
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1980
| 20 January: Dies – having worked up to the last day of his life.
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| The Tate Gallery buys Trooping the Colour from Ernest Cooper.
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| September/October: Retrospective exhibition at Maclean Gallery, London – 'William Roberts, R.A., 1895–1980'.
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| Exhibition at Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London – 'William Roberts 1895–1980: Drawings and Watercolours'.
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1982
| Publication of William Roberts: Early Years.
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| Exhibition at Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York.
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1983
| March/April: Retrospective exhibition at Reading Museum and Art Gallery – 'William Roberts R.A.: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by William Roberts
R.A. 1895–1980'.
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1984
| July/October: Exhibition at National Portrait Gallery, London – 'William Roberts 1895–1980: An Artist and his Family'.
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1985
| Exhibition at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge – 'William Roberts R.A.: Watercolours, Drawings and Etchings'.
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1986
| Exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery, London – 'Double-Sided Drawings'.
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1989
| Exhibition at Albemarle Gallery, London – 'William Roberts R.A.: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours 1910–1978'.
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1990
| Exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery, London – 'William Roberts, Paintings and Drawings'.
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| John Roberts publishes in Valencia Five Posthumous Essays and other Writings by William Roberts.
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1991
| Exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery, London – '40 Self-Portraits'.
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1992
| April/May: Exhibition at Gillian Jason Gallery, London – 'William Roberts 1895–1980: Humour and Satire'.
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| 29 November: Sarah Roberts dies at St Mark's Crescent.
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1995
| Mid-February: John Roberts dies at St Mark's Crescent.
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1998
| 6 May: Death of Ernest Cooper.
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