
Why Peter Rees Roberts matters
Peter Rees Roberts, 1923 to 1998, was a British painter and muralist whose career centered on postwar London exhibition circuits and a decade of freelance illustration for the national press. His significance to this record is largely documentary. He represents a real, obituary-verified artist for whom no established secondary market, catalogue raisonne, or confirmed museum holding currently exists in public sources. The profile below states exactly what credible sources support and no more.
- Born
- 1923-08-23, Mitcham, Surrey, England
- Nationality
- British
- Media
- Painting, Murals, Illustration
- Education
- Wimbledon School of Art, drawing and illustration, 1939 to 1941; Royal College of Art (wartime campus, Ambleside), mural painting under Professor Ernest Tristram, exact end date not documented in sources
By the numbers
- 1923 to 1998LifespanBorn Mitcham, Surrey; died Ewshot, Hampshire
- From 1941RCA trainingMural painting under Professor Ernest Tristram at RCA's wartime Ambleside campus; exact end date not documented in sources
- 1950sPress careerFreelance national press artist, per obituary
- Not establishedAuction recordMarket trackers cite undated, unpriced 'record price' results for named titles; no verified price, currency, house, or date as of 2026-07-18
Selected works
Click any work to view it full screen.
Biography
Peter William Rees Roberts was born in Mitcham, Surrey, on 23 August 1923. He studied drawing and illustration at Wimbledon School of Art from 1939 to 1941. After being medically rejected for war service, he began studying mural painting under Professor Ernest Tristram at the Royal College of Art, which had relocated to Ambleside for the duration of the Second World War; the exact date he left the College is not documented in available sources.
In 1945 he married the painter Ursula McCannell; the couple had three sons. Following the war, Rees Roberts exhibited at several London venues, including the Modern Art Gallery, The Leger Galleries, the Redfern Gallery, and the New English Art Club. He was known in particular for his mural work and for a career as a freelance artist for the national press during the 1950s. He later showed work at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham and the Century Gallery in Henley-on-Thames, though the exact years of those later exhibitions are not given in available sources. He died in Ewshot, Hampshire, on 22 October 1998.
Critical reception
No exact quotes from named critics writing in major outlets about Peter Rees Roberts have been located. The most substantive account of his career remains the 1998 obituary published in The Independent, which frames him primarily as a muralist and as a freelance artist for the national press in the 1950s rather than as a subject of sustained critical writing. Without further primary documentation, such as contemporary reviews from his Redfern Gallery or New English Art Club years, no critical consensus can be described.
Market
No verified auction sale price, currency, house, or date has been located for Peter Rees Roberts as of 2026-07-18. A market tracker, MutualArt, lists specific titles as having achieved a "record price" in particular years, including Catboat underway (2020), The Bobbin Mill Ambleside II (2017 and 2006), and A Panorama of vignettes of Cambridge (2015), but publishes no price, currency, auction house, or exact sale date for any of them, so no figure can be responsibly reported. Because the name closely echoes several unrelated public figures, including the politician Peter Rees, Baron Rees, and a television producer also named Peter Rees, any purported sale of a "Peter Rees Roberts" work should be independently verified before it is treated as market evidence.
Selected exhibitions
| Years | Exhibition | Venues |
|---|---|---|
| Post-1945 | Exhibited work | Modern Art Gallery, London |
| Post-1945 | Exhibited work | The Leger Galleries, London |
| Post-1945 | Exhibited work | Redfern Gallery, London |
| Post-1945 | Exhibited work | New English Art Club, London |
| Not dated in source | Later exhibited work | New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham |
| Not dated in source | Later exhibited work | Century Gallery, Henley-on-Thames |
Authentication and provenance
No catalogue raisonne.
No catalogue raisonne and no certificate-of-authenticity program has been identified for this artist. No current gallery or estate representation could be confirmed, so provenance and attribution should be verified independently before any transaction.
Primary reference: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-peter-rees-roberts-1187757.html
What collectors should know
There is no catalogue raisonne for Peter Rees Roberts and no evidence of a certificate-of-authenticity program or an estate-run authentication body. No current gallery or estate representation could be confirmed as of 2026-07-18, and no museum collection has been verified to hold his work. Because the name overlaps with several unrelated public figures, collectors should independently verify attribution, provenance, and any claimed sale history before relying on a secondary listing.
Further reading and resources
Data current as of 2026-07-18.

