Study for ‘The Sailor’s Return'

Drawn in about 1948, the subject of the returning sailor was still pertinent to a Europe that had recently demobilised its armed forces. The Sailor’s Return in a non-specific way provides a kind of closure to Roberts’ earlier quayside departure Sailor’s Farewell of c.1942. The sailor in the 1948 work seems to be from the French Marine Nationale, identifiable by the red pompom on his sailor’s cap. Two similarly dressed French sailors appear in final version (now destroyed) of Roberts’ A Station Scene in Wartime of 1943 – a work concerned with departures. When Roberts worked up the watercolour drawing of The Sailor’s Return as an oil painting he added two further compositional elements – a support vessel that has brought the sailor ashore and two gulls in flight. The oil painting of The Sailor's Return was exhibited in the Tate Gallery's 1965 William Roberts retrospective (where it was illustrated in the catalogue).

We are very grateful to David Cleall and Bob Davenport for preparing this catalogue entry.