TOM ROBERTS
Tom Roberts was the principal figure in the establishment of the Heidelberg School and an important advocate for an Australian national identity in the late 19th century.
Roberts was born in Dorchester, England, and emigrated to Australia in 1869. He attended the Collingwood and Carlton Artisan’s Schools of Design (1873) and the National Gallery School in Melbourne (1874), and studied in London at the Royal Academy of Arts (1881-1884). In Britain, he was influenced by the impressionist painting of the Newlyn and Glasgow schools and returned to Australia in 1885.
Roberts began painting plein air with Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams, Arthur Street and Charles Conder at Box Hill and Heidelberg (1886-1888). In 1889 the group held the establishing the Heidelberg School as Australia’s leading contemporary group of painters with Roberts’ preference for painterly sketches of contemporary life, challenging Victorian tastes for detailed narrative painting.
Roberts moved to Sydney in 1889, developing his practice as a portraitist and history painter. His seminal painting, Shearing the Rams (1890), celebrates the history of pastoral settlement and remains one of Australia’s most well-known works.
Roberts’ work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
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