Tom+Roberts

** Tom Roberts Home     | Robert Hoddle | Charles La Trobe| John Batman         | Tom Roberts |     John Fawkner     | Joseph Reed           |       [|Reflective Blog]       | Bibliography | Mind Map    Thomas William Roberts was born on the 9th of March 1856. Tom, as he is known, has painted a number of oil paintings, a few of which have become quite well known. These are //The Big Picture// and //Shearing the Rams.// Both were large oil paintings.   Tom Roberts’ was born in Dorchester, England. His father died at the age of 43, his widowed mother and three sons were left in poor circumstances. It was decided that they were to immigrate to Australia. The family arrived in Australia in 1869. When they got to Melbourne, they found a house in an industrial part of Collingwood. Tom Roberts began studying drawing, and joined the National Gallery in 1875. They were poor for some time, until Roberts found a job as a photographer’s assistant. He later became head operator. He sold some pictures to go to London for further study. When he came back to Australia, he often went to painting camps with Frederick McCubbin.   His famous oil painting named //Shearing the Rams// was inspired by a visit to a sheep station at Brocklesby in southern New South Wales. The painting depicted the Australian wool industry, which was Australia’s only export of manufactured goods. The work    was criticized, at the time of it showing, by many critics because it was not viewed as ‘high art’. Since, however, the wool industry is Australia’s largest export it was a theme that many Australian people could recognize. Although the painting, in some instances is not very realistic; for instance the left shearer has picked up the sheep to move it when, in a normal shed it would be dragged backwards. His second eminent art work was //the Big Picture.// A description of the first sitting of the Parliament of Australia. It is an enormous painting, 304.5 x 509.2 cm (unframed). It is well noted due to the unambiguous faces of the people at the meeting. The meeting took place on the 9th of May 1901, at the Royal Exhibition Building. The painting is widely recognized as an icon of federation. There were 500 engraved photos of the painting which were signed by Tom Roberts.  During World War I Tom Roberts went over to England. He assisted in a hospital for three and a half years. Immediately after the war was over Roberts began to paint again. A year later he said, “They may say I am old-fashioned nowadays. Well I am proud that since the war I have exhibited with some of the modern London societies that are the most exclusive in the selection of their pictures.” He returned to Australia in the November of 1919 for a holiday. He had a successful exhibition of his work at the Athenaeum gallery, Melbourne during 1920.  Through the 1880s and 1890s he worked in Victoria, in his studio at the famous Grosvenor chambers studio at number 9 Collins Street, Melbourne. He married Elizabeth Williamson in 1896. Elizabeth died in January 1928. Tom remarried to Jean Boyes in August that same year. Tom died in 1931 of cancer at Sydney, Australia.

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