Lot 94: Jim Page-Roberts (b. 1925)

Jim Page-Roberts (b. 1925)
Tower Bridge and Ship Offloading into Three Barges in the Upper Pool, London
signed with initials 'P.R.' (lower right), and with studio stamp (on the reverse)
oil on card
21¾ x 31¼ in. (55 x 78 cm.)
Painted in 1964.

A PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WORKS BY JIM PAGE-ROBERTS

A prolific exhibitor of paintings and collages at Wellington College, Jim became a wartime refugee in the U.S.A. until old enough to return to England in a convoy to join the R.A.F. in 1942.
Becoming a pilot at the end of hostilities in Europe, TB and then a recurrence of it allowed him to direct his life.
He studied painting under Bernard Meninsky at the Central School of Art before learning a trade as theatre designer at the Old Vic School. His 1950s landscape paintings were exhibited with success at the Leicester Galleries, Redfern Gallery, Galerie de Seine and other galleries. One of his 1954 paintings was sold at Christie's in December 2006 for £33,600.

In 1958 to 1959 he circled the globe, whilst executing drawings with oil on paper which he exhibited at the Reid Gallery, Cork Street and the Kintetsu Gallery, Osaka, Japan. With one hundred remaining drawings he illustrated an account of these travels in his book, Harbours, Girls and a Slumbering World (Mudlark Press).
Creating the first warehouse to be turned into a studio and living accomodation in Limehouse in the early 1960s, from where he had sailed as a supernumerary on coasters, he had an ideal base from which to paint related ship shapes in London's dockland (see lot 94). These were followed by a show at Quantas Gallery, Bond Street, in 1969, portraying his father's near fatal wounding in Mesopotamia in 1916. The show included the sculpted Nine logs from the Tigris (wooden pieces extracted from Limekiln Dock as the besieged British soldiers might have extracted logs from the Tigris).
After adding sculpture to a show at the Central Library, Lion Yard, Cambridge, he devoted two years to sculpting large pieces of three dead elm trees (see lot 96). About to show the results, a broken wrist in a car accident caused another change of creative direction.
In the next 25 years he wrote many articles, mainly on wine and vines, and 14 books on wine, vines, cooking and the London docks and travel.
In failing to obtain a Matthew Smith pastel at Christie's, he was inspired to return to using pastels on paper and card (see lot 97). An exhibiton of these (Aircraft Shadows) was held at the Mayor Gallery, Cork Street, from November - December 2009.
Artist's Resale Right ("droit de Suite"). If the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
After selling his country studio in Berkshire to Francis Bacon, the artist returned to London. Having great affinity with the London docks, he obtained permission from the Port of London Authority to roam the docks for artistic inspiration.