Tom Roberts
Pioneered Australian Impressionism and national narratives
Thomas William "Tom" Roberts was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After attending art schools in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe in 1881 to further his training, and returned home in 1885, "primed with whatever was the latest in art". He did much to promote en plein air painting and encouraged other artists to capture the national life of Australia. While he is best known for his "national narratives"—among them Shearing the Rams (1890), A break away! (1891) and Bailed Up (1895)—he also achieved renown as a portraitist, and in 1903 completed The Big Picture, the most famous visual representation of the first Australian Parliament.
Artworks by this artist (20 total)
- Holiday sketch at Coogee 1888
- Fog, Thames Embankment 1884
- Hutt Valley
- Evening train to Hawthorn circa 1889
- Bailed up 1895
- Mrs L. A. Abrahams
- Adagio circa 1893
- In a corner on the Macintyre
- Smike Streeton age 24 1891
- Slumbering sea, Mentone
- In Quarantine, Wellington
- The camp, Sirius Cove 1899
- An autumn morning, Milson’s Point, Sydney 1888
- The Golden Fleece 1894
- Tom Roberts 1890
- Winter morning after rain, Gardiner’s Creek 1885
- A break away! 1891
- A Sunday afternoon
- Andante 1889
- Coming South