Robert Pope Archive

A page of drawings possibly inspired by the shocking opening scene of the surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou, in which a woman’s eye is cut in half with a razor. The madman who wields the razor is played by the

In the top sketch, Robert recreates a moment from his 1986 cancer treatment at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Toronto. His mother Isabel accompanied him on this trip. Below this, Robert returns to the exterior view of the VG hospital in

Beside two studies for his drawing, Chemotherapy and Christ, Robert has jotted down two lists of ideas for future paintings, as well as a list of chapters for his book, Illness & Healing. The finished book dispenses with these chapter divisions so

Robert used his sketchbooks to generate ideas for paintings. His ideas came from different sources. Here he makes notes from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s book, On Death and Dying. Kubler-Ross’s notion that patients and their families pass through 5 stages of dying

Two sketchbook drawings show the development of an idea. In the first drawing, the car is positioned half-way between two figures and a telephone booth. The car is lit from above by the streetlight and casts a triangle-shaped shadow. In the second

This sketchbook page, with its multiple studies and notes, reflects Robert’s new focus on creating a series on a common theme, planning small sluices of a subject in many images rather than trying to express all his ideas in one image. The text

Robert’s sketchbooks include, along with studies and ideas for paintings, more relaxed drawings of friends. He is able to draw faces using very few contour lines, suggesting forms through delicate cross-hatching. The women seem to have been caught almost by

If one compares this sketch with the finished painting, it’s clear Robert changed models for the woman, though the pose and lighting remain quite similar. He also changes the heavy turtleneck sweater seen here for a more casual and attractive

In the sketches on this page, Robert works through two metaphors for his painting, The Lavishness of My Feelings. The first metaphor, a woman poised between love and death, comes by way of artist Edvard Munch. The second metaphor makes reference

This sketchbook page focuses on waiting patients interacting with their friends and families. Robert’s marginal notes describe details of clothing. In his first sketch of a patient and friend, it was ambiguous who was the patient and who was the friend.