Although Tom Roberts is not widely known in the United States, he is considered a legend in Australia. The Tom Roberts Festival is held every five years in Inverell, New South Wales, where Roberts created many of his sheep industry paintings, including The Golden Fleece and Shearing Shed, Newstead (“About Tom Roberts”). Not only is his influence celebrated there with a Heritage Tour of his painting locations, but his face was also minted on the 1996 five dollar coin, a hallmark of the national pride he champions (“1996 Roberts Five Dollars”).
Despite Tom Roberts’ legendary national fame, he was, in fact, not even Australian. Born on May 9, 1856 in Dorchester, England, he did not move to Australia until 1869 at the age of thirteen, when his father died (McCulloch 150). The death left his mother with little choice but to emigrate to Australia, where her brother was already settled (McCulloch 150). The move forced the Roberts family into a harsh, new economic position which would impact Tom for the rest of his life. In contrast to the comfortable middle class lifestyle they had been accustomed to in England, the only accommodation the Roberts family could afford after the move was a small, shabby building (Shore 2). In addition, Tom began working immediately with a photographer to supplement the income. He received very low wages and worked very long hours; he described his life at the time as full of “long, hard hot days, poor housing and uncongenial companions” (qtd Shore 2). The experience of such a difficult work environment allowed Roberts later to identify closely with the labor movements he depicted in his sheep industry paintings.
As a result of his hardships, Tom worked even harder, and obtained a job working with the leading Melbourne photographer of the day, Stewarts of Bourke Street (Shore 3). He then began taking classes at the National Gallery of Art School, and after receiving encouragement from the drawing master, Thomas Clark, he traveled to England in 1881 to study at the Royal Academy School in London (Shore 6). It was during this time in London that Roberts first experimented with the en plein air painting style, for which he later would receive such notoriety upon introducing the new style into Australian art. Along with three other Australians, in his second year abroad, Roberts embarked on a walking tour of France and Spain, practicing his new technique. However, he did not forget where he originally began to paint. One of the members of his tour group, Dr William Maloney remarked that Roberts was “as true an Australian as any born on that continent…Australia was always in his mind” (Shore 8). Consistent with that observation, Roberts finally returned to Australia in 1885.
Upon his return, Roberts gathered fellow artists Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, and Charles Condor and established the Heidelberg School of Impressionism, applying the en plein air technique to the Australian bush he loved (Shore 9). One of the first manifestations of the developed school was Roberts’ The Artist’s Camp (1886), depicting both McCubbin and his good friend Louis Abrahams in their natural artistic setting (Splatt 30). Then, in 1889, Roberts organized the 9” by 5” Exhibition, bringing the group’s work to the forefront of Australian fine art culture (Shore 14). In the next few years, Roberts traveled extensively throughout the Australian outback, spending a great deal of time with shearers and other workers of the sheep industry. It was during this time that he created his most renowned works of art including Shearing the Rams (1890) and The Breakaway (1891). He was particularly praised for his commitment in glorifying the Australian working man and creating a heroic symbol of Australian national identity.
Then, in 1900, upon the federation of the Australian states, Roberts was approached and asked to build upon this symbol of nation identity by painting Opening of the First Parliament (1903) (Shore 21). Although it would not be outside or of his beloved Australian bush, Roberts was tempted by the fame and money it promised, so he accepted. He spent over two years on this massive (eighteen feet by twelve feet) canvas, traveling around the world in order to portray accurately each of the two-hundred and fifty people present (Shore 22). Upon its completion, when he received no offers of work and little hint of fame, the artist became very depressed, entering into what his son referred to as his “black period” (qtd Shore 25). Dissatisfied with the life he had in the Australian cities, he moved his family to London. He spent the entirety of the First World War there, painting little and becoming increasingly somber and disheartened. But, when he returned to Australia in 1919 for a short holiday, as a testament to the influence his adopted country had on him, Roberts quickly regained his artistic vigor and inspiration and began painting once again, in the Dandenong Ranges (Shore 27). Roberts revisited his beloved outback and resumed his acclaimed nationalistic portrayals of Australia with such paintings as Country Road Makers (1923) (Mackenzie). He lived out the rest of his life in Australia, painting continuously and even holding two very successful one-man shows (Shore 27).
Historian Arnold Shore notes that “none made a more valuable contribution to Australian art, nor loved Australia more” (Shore 29). His influence on Australian art and history is unparalleled, shown by the many national tributes given to him since his death. However, it only was through his perception of and experience in a foreign culture that he was subsequently able to idealize the Australian outback and embody the strong nationalistic sentiments of the late nineteenth century in his pastoral paintings.
Images:
Barnett, H. Walter. Tom Roberts. Private Collection.
Roberts, Tom. The Artist’s Camp. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Roberts, Tom. The Opening of the First Parliament. Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra.