Laurentians, Gray Day

Goodridge Roberts (1904 – 1974)
Goodridge Roberts was amongst the first Canadian painters to give equal emphasis to landscapes, still lifes, and paintings of figures. However, he is best known for his paintings of Quebec and Eastern Canadian landscapes.

Born in 1904 to a prominent New Brunswick family while on holiday in Barbados, Roberts studied at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal in the mid 1920s, and in 1926 pursued his studies at the Arts Student League in New York. He settled in Ottawa in 1930, where he exhibited his work and founded a summer school in nearby Wakefield, Quebec.

A keen educator, Roberts taught at the Art Association of Montreal for almost a decade, interrupted by a two-year stint as an official war artist during WWII. Along with Ernest Neumann, Roberts opened a school of art in Montreal under the name Roberts-Neumann School of Art. He was the first artist in residence at Queen’s University and the University of New Brunswick.

Roberts received professional recognition throughout his career. A charter member of the Eastern Group of Painters, Roberts was made a member of the Contemporary Arts Society in 1939. A fellowship from the Royal Society of Canada in 1953 allowed Roberts to travel to Europe, where he painted in Paris, Italy and on the Cote d'Azur. He was elected a member of both the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. In 1956 he became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1969.

Roberts’ work has been exhibited at major museums and galleries, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Tate Gallery and the Commonwealth Institute in London, as well as in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. He was one of four Canadian artists to represent Canada at the 1952 Venice Biennale. In 1969, the National Gallery of Canada celebrated his career with a major retrospective of his work.