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Priscilla Roberts
"Antique Toys" Priscilla Roberts, Still Life, Realistic, Doll, Magical Realist

circa 1940s

$6,500
£5,041.13
€5,731.69
CA$9,274.21
A$10,121.99
CHF 5,316.32
MX$122,936.11
NOK 66,709.73
SEK 62,605.23
DKK 42,801.29

About the Item

Priscilla Roberts Antique Toys Signed lower left; identified through gallery label affixed to backing Oil on board 20 x 24 inches Provenance Grand Central Galleries, New York Roberts was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, but spent most of her youth in New York City. During a period when Roberts was kept at home to recover from a bout of acidosis, her mother made a scrapbook of Good Housekeeping advertisements to help keep her occupied and this, she later said, was the probable beginning of her ambition to become an artist. In the mid-1930s Roberts attended Radcliffe College for one year and transferred to the Yale School of Art for part of the next. In 1937, she began study at the Art Students League, working under Charles Courtney Curran and Sidney Dickinson. Two years later she began study at the National Academy of Design, continuing there until 1943. After completing study at the National Academy, Roberts found work as a commercial artist. She soon discovered, however, that the pressure of working to deadlines did not suit her and consequently turned to fine art. In 1946 Roberts signed with an artists' cooperative, the Grand Central Art Galleries, then located on the sixth floor of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. When in 1948 she moved from an apartment in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood to suburban Wilton, Connecticut, she continued her association with them and they remained the only commercial outlet of her work for the rest of her life. Her paintings were usually purchased as soon as she completed them. However, because she worked very slowly, taking a year or more to complete a single painting, her income remained low and for many years she was unable to assemble enough work to justify a solo exhibition. After she had moved to Connecticut, Roberts would explore antique shops, flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales to find unusual objects to use in her still lifes. She became a familiar presence in Wilton Center and there acquired both supporters and friends, people whose help became an important factor in her life when the cottage where she lived was sold to developers and, because of her many pets, it was difficult for her to find a new place to live. She was given her first solo exhibition at Grand Central Galleries in 1961 and a second twenty years later. In neither case did she attend the opening. Although she would personally deliver her paintings to the gallery and was well known to its staff, she did not like to mix in the New York art world. Despite her low earnings and hardships she encountered in making a living as an artist she said her devotion to her work led her to lead "the happiest life there could be". Roberts did not use the term magic realism to describe her work, but called her meticulous style "super-realism." She blacked out the windows of her studio and used precisely-controlled artificial light so that she could replicate the light exactly as she saw it, consistently over many hours at her easel. Most of her paintings were easel art, made in oil paint applied with brush on masonite board. Although the tone of her work was often somber, evoking the passage of time, she would also sometimes treat her subjects in a light and playful manner, juxtaposing objects so as to make visual puns. Roberts was invited to exhibit at the 131st annual exhibition held by the National Academy of Design and the following year was made an Academy member. Her paintings are held in collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, The Butler Institute of American Art, the Canton Museum of Art (Ohio), the Walker Art Center, IBM Corp., and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
  • Creator:
    Priscilla Roberts (1916 - 2001, American)
  • Creation Year:
    circa 1940s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 28 in (71.12 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    Unique workPrice: $6,500
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1841217130872

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