Artist

Prophet” Royal Robertson

born Baldwin, LA 1930-died Houston, TX 1997
Media - portrait_image_113649.jpg - 90347
Originally photographed by Chuck Rosenak. Image is courtesy of the Chuck and Jan Rosenak research material, 1990-1999, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Born
Baldwin, Louisiana, United States
Died
Houston, Texas, United States
Biography

"Prophet" Royal Robertson spent most of his life in Louisiana. As a teenager, he left to travel along the West Coast, but returned after a few years to take care of his elderly mother. In 1955 he married, but after nineteen years his wife left him and took their children to live in Texas. Devastated, Robertson began to decorate the inside and outside of his house with drawings denouncing his wife's betrayal. Over the next decade, this obsession became a mental disorder that convinced him he was the victim of an evil female conspiracy.

Works by this artist (5 items)

Jean Negulesco, Arabesque, 1928, pen and ink on paper mounted on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.120
Arabesque
Date1928
pen and ink on paper mounted on paper
Not on view
Jean Negulesco, (Abstraction), n.d., oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.227
(Abstraction)
Daten.d.
oil on fiberboard
Not on view
Jean Negulesco, New York City, n.d., oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.229
New York City
Daten.d.
oil on paperboard
Not on view
Jean Negulesco, (Untitled--Portrait), 1927, pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows, 1983.90.119
(Untitled – Portrait)
Date1927
pencil on paper
Not on view