Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, he travelled to Europe in 1881 to further his training, and returned home in 1885, "primed with whatever was the latest in art". A leading proponent of painting ''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

'', he joined

Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...

in founding the Box Hill artists' camp, the first of several ''plein air'' camps frequented by members of the Heidelberg School. He also encouraged other artists to capture the national life of Australia, and while he is best known today for his "national narratives"—among them '' Shearing the Rams'' (1890), '' A break away!'' (1891) and '' Bailed Up'' (1895)—he earned a living as a portraitist, and in 1903 completed the commissioned work '' The Big Picture'', the most famous visual representation of the first Australian Parliament.

Life

Roberts was born in Dorchester,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, although some mystery surrounds his actual birthdate: his birth certificate says 8 March 1856, whereas his tombstone is inscribed 9 March. Roberts migrated with his family to Australia in 1869 to live with relatives. Settling in Collingwood, a suburb of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. He worked as a photographer's assistant through the 1870s, while studying art at night under Louis Buvelot and befriending others who were to become prominent artists, notably

. During this period, his mother had remarried to a man whom Roberts did not get on with. He hence decided to further his art studies, and returned to England for three years of full-time art study at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

from 1881 to 1884. He traveled in Spain in 1883 with Australian artist John Russell, where he met Spanish artists Laureano Barrau and Ramon Casas who introduced him to the principles of

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and plein air painting. While in London and Paris, he took in the progressing influence of painters Jules Bastien-Lepage and

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

. From 1884 and through the 1890s Roberts worked again in Victoria, in his studio at the famous studio complex of Grosvenor Chambers at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne. In 1885 he started painting and sketching excursions to what would later become outer suburbs, creating camps at Box Hill and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, where he worked alongside McCubbin, Arthur Streeton and

Charles Conder Charles Edward Conder (24 October 1868 – 9 February 1909) was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australi ...

, working on representing Australia's light, heat, space and distance. 10 Southway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, July 2021

In 1896 he married 36-year-old Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson and they had a son, Caleb. Many of his most famous paintings come from this period. Lillie Roberts was an expert maker of picture frames, and during the period 1903–1914, when Roberts painted relatively little, much of the family's income apparently came from Lillie's work. Roberts spent

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in England assisting at a hospital. In Australia, he built a house at Kallista, near Melbourne. Elizabeth died in January 1928, and Roberts remarried, to Jean Boyes, in August 1928. He died in 1931 of cancer in Kallista near Melbourne. His ashes are buried in the churchyard at Illawarra near Longford,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Work

Tom Roberts - Holiday sketch at Coogee - Google Art Project

Roberts painted a considerable number of fine oil landscapes and portraits, some painted at artist camps with his friend McCubbin. Perhaps the most famous in his time were two large paintings, '' Shearing the Rams'', now displayed in the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

and '' The Big Picture'', displayed in

Parliament House, Canberra Parliament House, also referred to as Capital Hill or simply Parliament, is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, and the seat of the legislative branch of the Australian Government. Located in Canberra, the Parliament building is ...

. ''The Big Picture'', commissioned for a fee of one thousand guineas plus expenses was a depiction of the first sitting of the Parliament of Australia in the Melbourne Exhibition Building and was an enormous work, notable for the event depicted as well as the quality of Roberts' work. ''Shearing the Rams'' was based on a visit to a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

Brocklesby __NOTOC__ Brocklesby is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south from Habrough, south-west from Immingham, and is located close to the border of both North Lincolnshire and North ...

in southern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, depicted the

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

industry that had been Australia's first export industry and a staple of rural life. When it was first exhibited, there were immediately calls for the painting to enter a public gallery, with a Melbourne correspondent for the Sydney press stating, "if our national gallery trustees were in the least patriotic, they would purchase it." Some critics did not feel that it fitted the definition of 'high art'. However, since the wool industry was Australia's greatest export industry at the time, it was a theme with which many Australian people could identify. In this painting, as one modern reviewer has said, Roberts put his formal art training to work, translating "the classical statuary into the brawny workers of the shearing shed". Roberts made many other paintings showing country people working, with a similar image of the shearing sheds in '' The Golden Fleece'' (1894), a drover racing after sheep breaking away from the flock in '' A break away!'', and with men chopping trees in '' Wood splitters'' (1886). Many of Roberts' paintings were landscapes or ideas done on small canvases that he did very quickly, such as his show at the famous ''

9 by 5 Impression Exhibition The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition was an art exhibition in Melbourne, Australia. It opened on 17 August 1889 at Buxton's Rooms on Swanston Street and featured 183 works, the majority of which were painted by Charles Conder, Tom Roberts and Arthur ...

'' in Melbourne, "9 by 5" referring to the size in inches of the

cigar box A cigar box is a box container for cigar packaging. Traditionally cigar boxes have been made of wood, cardboard or paper. Spanish cedar has been described as the "best" kind of wood for cigar boxes because of its beautiful grain, fine textu ...

lids on which most of the paintings were done. Roberts had more works on display in this exhibition than anyone else. Tom Roberts - Shearing the rams - Google Art Project

Tom Roberts - Shearing the rams - Google Art Project

In 1888 Roberts met Conder in Sydney and they painted together at Coogee beach. The younger Conder found these painting expeditions influential and decided to follow Roberts to Melbourne later that year to join him and Streeton at their artists' camp at Heidelberg. While Conder painted Coogee Bay emphasising on the decorative qualities of form and colour, Roberts'
Holiday sketch at Coogee
'(1888) embodies his primary focus on the landscape's natural effects. It is an early testament to Roberts' plein-air 'impressionist' technique, which brought out the sun's glare on the bright blue sea, bleached white sand, dry grass and spindly seaside vegetation.

Legacy

Roberts' life was dramatised in the 1985 Australian mini series '' One Summer Again''. A "lost" painting titled '' Rejected'' was featured in a 2017 episode of the BBC series ''

Fake or Fortune? ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...

''. It was determined by experts to be a genuine Roberts, dating from his student years in London. Roberts' granddaughter considered it a self-portrait. If so, it would make it his oldest surviving self-portrait.

Retrospectives

A retrospective toured Australia in 1996–97 and another was shown at the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

from December 2015 – March 2016. Roberts was one of four Australian artists whose paintings featured in the ''Australia’s Impressionists'' exhibition at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, which ran from December 2016 to March 2017; it was described as 'the first UK exhibition of its kind'.

Gallery

Rejected, Tom Roberts.jpg, '' Rejected'', 1883 File:Tom Roberts Bourke Street.jpg, '' Allegro con brio: Bourke Street west'', 1886, National Gallery of Australia File:Tom Roberts - Coming South - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Coming South'', 1886, National Gallery of Victoria File:Tom Roberts - Slumbering sea, Mentone - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Slumbering Sea, Mentone'', 1887, National Gallery of Victoria File:Tom Roberts Charlie Turner.jpg, ''Aboriginal Head, Charlie Turner'', 1892, Art Gallery of New South Wales File:Tom Roberts - An autumn morning, Milson's Point, Sydney - Google Art Project.jpg, ''An autumn morning, Milson's Point, Sydney, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales'' File:Tom Roberts - A break away! - Google Art Project.jpg, '' A break away!'', 1891, Art Gallery of South Australia File:Tom Roberts Lily Stirling.jpg, ''Lily Stirling'', 1890, National Gallery of Victoria File:Tom Roberts - The Golden Fleece - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Golden Fleece'', 1894, Art Gallery of New South Wales File:Tom Roberts - Mosman's Bay.jpg, ''Mosman's Bay'', 1894,

New England Regional Art Museum New England Regional Art Museum The New England Regional Art Museum, known as NERAM, is a museum of Australian art located in Armidale in the New England region of New South Wales. NERAM's art collections are the second largest and most valuabl ...

File:Edward Ogilvie, 1894-95 Tom Roberts ML687.jpg, Edward Ogilvie, 1894–95, Tom Roberts, oil painting, State Library of New South Wales File:Tom Roberts - Bailed up - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Bailed Up'', 1895, Art Gallery of New South Wales File:Tom roberts Portret of Florence.jpg, ''Portrait of Florence'', 1898, Art Gallery of New South Wales

References

External links

Tom Roberts on Picture Australia

Tom Roberts
at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tom Roberts on artistsfootsteps.com

Tom Roberts essay
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Tom 1856 births 1931 deaths Heidelberg School People from Dorchester, Dorset Artists from Melbourne English emigrants to Australia 19th-century Australian painters 19th-century English male artists 20th-century Australian painters 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Australian landscape painters Australian portrait painters Australian male painters 20th-century English male artists People from Collingwood, Victoria National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni