Tom Roberts
Thomas William "Tom" Roberts (9 March 1856 – 14 September 1931) was an Anglo-Australian artist. He was an important member of the Heidelberg School.
Tom Roberts | |
|---|---|
 Portrait taken c.1920–1925 | |
| Born | 9 March 1856 |
| Died | 14 September 1931 (aged 75) |
| Resting place | Illawarra churchyard, near Longford, Tasmania, Australia |
| Other names | Nickname Bulldog |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson (m. 1896–1928) Jean Boyes (m. 1928–1931) |
| Parent(s) | Richard Roberts, Matilda |
Life
Roberts parents were newspaper editors. The family moved to Australia in 1869. They lived in Collingwood. He worked as a photographer's assistant through the 1870s. He studied art at night under Louis Buvelot. He became friends with Frederick McCubbin. He returned to England for three years of full-time art study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 to 1884.
Through the 1880s and 1890s he worked in Victoria. He married 35 year old Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson in 1896. They had a son, Caleb. Many of his most famous paintings come from this period.
He spent World War I in England helping at a hospital. In Australia, he built a house at Kallista, near Melbourne. This was a happy period in Roberts' life.
Elizabeth died in January 1928. Tom remarried, to Jean Boyes, in August 1928. He died in 1931 of cancer in Kallista near Melbourne. He is buried near near Longford, Tasmania.
Works
Roberts painted a lot of fine oil landscapes and portraits. His most famous works, in his time, were two large works, Shearing the Rams and The Big Picture. Roberts had a theme of showing country people working. Many examples of Roberts' work can be seen at the National Gallery of Australia. The Big Picture is at Parliament House, Canberra.
The Big Picture, opening of the Parliament of Australia, 9 May 1901.
'A quiet day on Darebin Creek' (1885)
Painting The Big Picture
Tom Roberts Media
Residence in Hampstead Garden Suburb, designed for Roberts by Thomas Geoffry Lucas in 1910
Holiday sketch at Coogee, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Allegro con brio: Bourke Street west, 1886, National Gallery of Australia
Coming South, 1886, National Gallery of Victoria
Slumbering Sea, Mentone, 1887, National Gallery of Victoria
Aboriginal Head, Charlie Turner, 1892, Art Gallery of New South Wales
An autumn morning, Milson's Point, Sydney, 1888, Art Gallery of New South Wales
A break away!, 1891, Art Gallery of South Australia
References
- Topliss, Helen. Roberts, Thomas William (Tom) (1856–1931). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Retrieved 5 June 2007.
- Helen Topliss; Tom Roberts (1985). Tom Roberts, 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné · Volume 1. Oxford University Press. pp. 544 pages. ISBN 0195545133.