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Tom Roberts

Early Days:

Tom Roberts born in Dorchester, Dorset, England, where his parents were newspaper editors, Roberts immigrated with his family to Australia in 1869. Settling in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne, he worked as a photographer's assistant through the 1870s while studying art at night under Louis Buvelot and befriending others who were to become prominent artists, notably Frederick McCubbin. He returned to England for three years of full-time art study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 to 1884.

Career:

Through the 1880s and 1890s he worked in Victoria, in his studio at the famous studio complex of Grosvenor Chambers at 9 Collins Street in Melbourne, and at a number of artists' camps and visits around the colony. He married 35 year old Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson in 1896, and they had a son, Caleb. Many of his most famous paintings come from this period. Roberts was an expert maker of picture frames, and during the period 1903-1914, when he painted relatively little, much of his income apparently came from this work.

Work done by Tom Roberts

Roberts painted a considerable number of fine oil landscapes and portraits, some painted at artist camps with his friend McCubbin, but perhaps his most famous works, in his time, were two large works, Shearing the Rams and The Big Picture.