Introduction
Thomas William (Tom) Roberts, was an Australian painter and one of the first impressionist artists in Australia.
He became a leading figure and had a profound impact on the Heidelberg School, a group of more than 20 Australian impressionist painters who used impressionistic techniques and promoted painting outdoors or en plein air that flourished from around the 1880’s to early 1900’s.
Roberts artwork displayed his feelings of ‘nationalism’ especially in the portraiture and outback paintings he produced, he saw these themes as a defining characteristic of modern Australian art. His artworks are also noted for its tonal techniques of portraying the uniquely Australian light.
Early Life
Tom was born on 9 March 1856 at Dorchester, Dorset, England, elder son of Richard Roberts, journalist, and his wife Matilda Agnes Cela, née Evans. Tom was educated at Dorchester Grammar School. After her husband’s death Matilda and her three children migrated in 1869 to Melbourne where they lived at Collingwood.
Tom in Studio
Tom worked as a photographer’s assistant through the 1870s, while studying art at night under Louis Buvelot, and befriending others like Frederick McCubbin. Encouraged by his teachers and a grant from the Victorian Academy of Arts, Roberts gain further experience in London studying full-time art study at the Royal Academy Schools 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 and plein air painting. While in London and Europe he took in the progressing influence of painters Jules Bastien-Lepage and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Tom returned to Victoria 1894 and worked from his studio at the famous studio complex of Grosvenor Chambers at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne. Roberts painted portraits of many of the most famous people in Australia during this period, which gave him a comfortable income. He was able to live a life of leisure. His subjects included the governor of Victoria Lord Hopetoun, his wife Lady Hopetoun, Sir John Winthrop Hackett, and Sir Henry Parkes..
The Heidelberg School Movement
In 1885 he started painting and sketching excursions with Frederick McCubbin and Arthur Streeton and later on with Sydney artist Charles Conder, creating camps at Box Hill in 1886, Beaumaris and Mentone 1887, in 1889 they established a hilltop camp at Eaglemont with views of the Yarra valley. These excursions allowed artists to paint in a pure landscape and to see new works by the other artists. Roberts paintings from these excursions show the combined influence of the plein air Impressionists, realist and naturalist painters.
Roberts promoted landscape art of Australia and the Australian national identity. The camps gave the artist a chance to broaden and teach their new style and techniques, working on representing Australia’s light, heat, space and distance with Roberts taking the lead as the group’s champion and advocate from experience he gained with the great painters of Europe and Britain.
Roberts strong passion and his dedicated to his craft, put him into a leadership role with this group of artist which is now known as the Heidelberg school movement, he is considered to be a very important figure in the development of landscape and nationalist paintings in Australia. The contribution of Tom Roberts at this time was significant; he left an important legacy both as practitioner and as teacher.
In 1889, along with McCubbin, Streeton, Conder and others, Roberts staged the 9 by 5 impression exhibition in Melbourne, Roberts took a major part in organising the event. It consisted of impressions of bush and city life rapidly painted on cigar box lids. Scorned by Melbourne conservative art critics, this groundbreaking show reinforced the group’s claim that they were creating a new type of art in Australia.
While the Melbourne society was slow to recognize this new movement, Sydney people did not hesitate to express their interest in this new painting style. In 1891 to 1894, Roberts led the group, which subsequently became known as the Australian Impressionist. Several exhibitions of the Australian Impressionists were held in that city and a successful annual exhibition was established in 1900.
Holiday Sketch at Coogee
Legacy
Roberts enthusiasm for this kind of art extended to many spheres, not only did he do a lot to encourage Australian artists, but he founded the Victorian Society of Fine Arts (later known as the Victorian Academy Of Art) which opened its first exhibition at Collins Street Gallery in December 1893, and he helped establish The Victorian Artists Society at The Exhibition Building in Melbourne with his fellow artist Arthur Streeton. Later in 1893, the Melbourne Art Society initiated a policy of support for plein air landscape painting.
Roberts travelled extensively and visited many remote outback stations, he visited Brocklesby station in the Riverina where he painted ‘Shearing the Rams’, which came to be considered the definitive image of an emerging national identity.
The painting was first exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Art, and it was soon known as ‘the Australian sheep painting’ and later as ‘the quintessential symbol of the national psyche’. He believed passionately in the new movement and defended it against its critics. His “Shearing the Rams” became, and has remained, one of most dominant images of the bush in colonial Australia.
The other paintings of the time “Shearing at Newstead”, “The Golden Fleece” and “Bailed up’ we’re inspired by a visit to a property of his friend Duncan Anderson near Inverell NSW
The Goldern Fleece
These paintings are now embedded in the Australian culture, and paintings that Australians have come to love and identify with, many people believe they have a special connection with these works because they were made on remote stations.
In 1901 Roberts was commissioned to paint a vast representation of the opening in Melbourne of the first Federal Parliament of Australia “The Big Picture” completing the work in England in 1903. This painting is one of the largest oil on canvas portraits ever completed and the work took him seven years to complete.
Roberts was a pioneer in creating national identity around the Australian life in the bush. Many people believe that his works are related to a particular way of life, and are about so Australiana that is about the unique imprint of . Many observers consider Roberts’ work as being among the most influential in Australia’s history, reflecting Australia’s colonial past, its culture and its development into a modern nation state.
An original thinker, Roberts had a breadth of view. He was a born leader and mentor to younger painters, having an impact on his contemporaries, McCubbin, Streeton, Conder and Jesse Traill, and on later Australian artists such as Elioth Gruner, Lloyd Rees, Arthur Boyd and Fred Williams.
Roberts is mentioned alongside McCubbin, Streeton and Conder in general literature about the “Australian Impressionist” movement.
Roberts’ works are held by major Australian galleries including:
National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of South Australia, Geelong Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery,National Gallery of Victoria,
Hope you enjoy this article if you would like to add any information please feel free to leave a Reply below.
Further Reading
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/roberts-thomas-william-tom-8229
https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/Roberts/default.cfm?MnuID=2&GalID=1