A Sunday afternoon

Tom Roberts's A Sunday Afternoon (1886) places the leader of Australian Impressionism within a leisure subject that connects him directly to his European training and inspiration. Roberts had studied in London and was deeply aware of French Impressionism; his Sunday afternoon scene — figures at leisure in an outdoor setting — participates in the tradition of French Impressionist leisure painting while relocating it to the Australian context. The painting was likely made at or near Melbourne, within the circle of Australian artists who were beginning to develop the plein air approach that would crystallize as the Heidelberg School.

Roberts combines his European academic training with emerging Impressionist influence: figures are carefully drawn but placed within an outdoor setting rendered with atmospheric looseness. His palette is sun-keyed for the Australian outdoor setting but not yet as bleached as the later Heidelberg plein air works — still retaining some of the tonal control of his London training. Light falls across the figures and landscape with the directness of the Australian sun, distinguishing his outdoor work from the more diffused European light.