At the Fair, Hampstead Heath

William Roberts was born and lived in London. Having studied at St. Martin's School of Art and at the Slade, he joined Roger Fry's Omega Workshops in 1913 and joined Wyndham Lewis at the Rebel Art Centre in the following year. Roberts exhibited as a member of the Vorticist Group and Group X, joined the London Group in 1915, belonged to the London Artists' Association and published a number of writings. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1952 and was elected a Royal Academician in 1966. His work is characterised by stylized figures, schematic designs and bold colours.

In 1951 Roberts was commissioned by the London Transport Board to paint an oil for a poster advertising London fairs which were within easy reach by public transport. The artist chose to depict Hampstead Fair (London Transport Board) and at the same time painted the present work which was reproduced at the bottom of the panel of text on the poster. (see William Roberts Retrospective Exhibition, Tate Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, 1965, no. 85).

London Transport began commissioning poster designs from artists when Frank Pick was given responsibility for the Underground Group's publicity in 1908 and by the 1920s was producing over forty posters a year. The policy gradually declined but in 1986 the decision was taken to revive direct commissions to artists with the 'Art on the Underground' programme. (see O. Green, Underground Art, London, 1999, pp. 8-16).