The William Roberts Society

William Roberts:

Aircraftman Shaw

(Portrait of T. E. Lawrence)

Illustration © The Estate of John David Roberts. Reproduced with the permission of the William Roberts Society. Catalogue information based on the catalogue raisonné by David Cleall. For this and full details of the exhibitions cited, see the links below.

Aircraftman Shaw (aka Portrait of T. E. Lawrence), 1922
Oil on canvas, 92 cm x 61 cm

In a letter to Roberts on 16 Feb. 1923 Lawrence wrote about his RAF uniform, 'Most of the R.A.F. would accept your judgement upon it: but it's easy to look after, & comfortable, & so I had no quarrel with it. People of my odd shape would look funny in anything, you know.'
PROVENANCE: Presented by Professor A. W. Lawrence > Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1946)
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Chenil Gallery 1923, National Portrait Gallery 1988, Leeds/Ben Uri Gallery 2003, Newcastle 2004