Character sketches: drawings by Fred Roe, 1900-27 (volume 1)
129 Portraits in set
The artist Fred Roe (1864-1947) assembled two albums of 'Character sketches' between 1900 and 1945, containing portraits of Roe's friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Many of these are drawn in pencil on menu cards and table plans and other ephemera, giving us a vivid sense of the portraits' context. A number of portraits were signed, not only by Roe, but also by the sitter. As well as portraits sketched at social events, a substantial number of portraits and comic sketches were made during committee meetings for the Artists' General Benevolent Institution and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. The albums therefore depict the social and professional circles of a London artist in London in the first half of the twentieth century. Roe used the albums as a filing system, allowing him to retrieve sketches and have them reproduced in publications, sometimes alongside the sitter's obituary. He annotated the album pages with the sitter's biographical information, and in one case, even jotted down the sitter's birthday. The albums were extensively annotated by Roe's son, the art historian F. Gordon Roe; they were generously donated to the NPG by his daughter, the artist (Eleanor) Frances Gordon Maynard (née Roe).
by Fred Roe
pen, circa 1886
NPG D43066
Thomas Benjamin Kennington ('T B Kennington on board the Channel Boat')
by Fred Roe
pencil, 11 April 1895
NPG D43095
Guide lecturing tourists in Rome (Seven unknown sitters)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900
NPG D43061
Guide lecturing tourists in Rome (Four unknown sitters)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900
NPG D43062
James Frank Sullivan ('Jassef')
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1936
NPG D43103
Tourists at Tivoli, Rome (Two unknown sitters)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 7 May 1900
NPG D43106
Thomas Blinks ('Tommy Blinks')
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1912
NPG D43108
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1916
NPG D43115
(Richard) Phené Spiers and an unknown man
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1916
NPG D43116
'Edward Bundy on Varnishing Day'
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1920
NPG D43137
Edward Bundy on Varnishing Day
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1900-1920
NPG D43138
Comic sketch: 'Mr Praise the Lord Scroggins' (Unknown Sitter)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1901-1910
NPG D43071
'Fishwife, Boulogne' (Unknown woman)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 22 May 1901
NPG D43084
'Fine Taille, Boulogne' (Unknown woman)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 22 May 1901
NPG D43088
'Creuze, Boulogne Fish Market' (Unknown fisherman)
by Fred Roe
pencil, May 1901
NPG D43089
'M l'Abbé on Train from St Denis' (Unknown sitter)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 18 May 1901
NPG D43090
'Fisherfolk: Boulogne' (Unknown sitters)
by Fred Roe
pencil, 1901
NPG D43105