Tom Roberts

Australian

7 paintings in our database

Roberts is one of the founding figures of Australian art.

Biography

Tom Roberts (1856–1931) was a British-born Australian painter who was the leading figure of the Heidelberg School — the group of Australian plein-air painters who established Australian Impressionism in the 1880s — and who created several of the most iconic images of Australian national life. Born in Dorchester, England, he emigrated to Australia as a child and trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School before returning to Europe to study in London and Madrid in the early 1880s. In Spain he encountered Velázquez and the tradition of plein-air painting that transformed his approach. Returning to Melbourne, he gathered around him a circle of painters — Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder — and established the Heidelberg artists' camp, where they developed an Australian Impressionism responsive to the specific qualities of Australian light and landscape. His Evening train to Hawthorn (1889), An autumn morning, Milson's Point, Sydney (1888), and the monumental Shearing the Rams (1890) are among the canonical images of Australian art. He was commissioned to paint the opening of the first Australian parliament in 1901.

Artistic Style

Roberts's style combines French Impressionist colour and plein-air technique with an interest in specifically Australian subjects and the quality of Australian light. His handling is confident and energetic, his palette warm — the gold and khaki of the Australian bush, the brilliant blue of Sydney Harbour — and his figure painting, particularly in Shearing the Rams, shows genuine sympathy for Australian working life. His urban subjects have a freshness and immediacy that capture the energy of colonial city life.

Historical Significance

Roberts is one of the founding figures of Australian art. The Heidelberg School that he led established the visual conventions through which Australians have understood their landscape and national life ever since. His Shearing the Rams became a defining image of Australian identity. His invitation to paint the opening of parliament gave Australian art official national status.

Things You Might Not Know

•Roberts was a central figure of the Heidelberg School, Australia's first major art movement, named after the Melbourne suburb where he and his colleagues set up an outdoor painting camp in the 1880s.
•His monumental painting 'Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia' (1903) — depicting the ceremony in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building — is one of the most historically important Australian paintings ever made.
•He was born in Dorchester, England, and emigrated to Australia as a child — making him an immigrant who became the defining painter of Australian national identity.
•He studied in London and Madrid in the mid-1880s, returning to Australia with Spanish plein-air techniques that transformed his approach and catalysed the Heidelberg School.
•He was known in the Melbourne art world as 'the Dean' — an informal title reflecting his organisational role, personal generosity, and moral authority within the Australian art community.

Influences & Legacy

Shaped By

Jules Bastien-Lepage — the French naturalist's plein-air technique was the direct model for Roberts's and the Heidelberg School's outdoor painting approach
Diego Velázquez — Roberts's Madrid studies gave him Velázquez's tonal control and compositional authority, visible in his figure paintings
The Spanish school generally — Roberts's London and Madrid studies introduced him to a warm, direct painterly tradition that suited Australian light

Went On to Influence

Arthur Streeton — Roberts's closest colleague in the Heidelberg School, whose luminous Australian landscapes were developed in direct dialogue with Roberts's example
Charles Conder — another Heidelberg School member shaped directly by Roberts's leadership and encouragement
Australian national painting tradition — Roberts's vision of Australian life, light, and landscape became the foundation of a distinctly national art