Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts was born 8th March 1856 in Dorchester, England and came to Australia as a child in 1869. He worked as a photographer and technician for twelve years in Melbourne and studied under Louis Buvelot and Thomas Clark. He returned to England to study at the Royal Academy and was influenced by Bastien-Lepage and Millet. In 1883 he went on a walking tour of Spain with John Peter Russell, they discovered plein air painting and embraced impressionism, Roberts returned to Melbourne in 1885.

Together with Louis Abrahams and FrederickMcCubbin, they camped and painted at Box Hill and later at Mentone and Beaumaris where they met Arthur Streeton and were later joined by Charles Conder. Roberts painting nickname was 'Bulldog'. The art school and style that they developed became known as 'the Heidelberg School'.

Roberts loved to travel, extensively throughout Australia and Europe. He moved to Sydney and the group painted at their camp in Little Sirius Cove. He returned to Melbourne in 1901 and accepted a commission to paint the 'Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia'  a monumental work which took him two and a half years to complete.

In 1903 Roberts journeyed back to England and returned to Melbourne twenty years later settling at Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges. Roberts had a son Caleb (1898) by his first wife Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson who died in 1928 whereupon he married Jean Boyes. He died 14th September 1931.

His great legacy is the superb collection of landscapes, action paintings and portraits that can be seen in state, regional and private galleries in Australia.

He was the 'Father of the Heidelberg School' of Australian landscape painting.

  'Slumbering sea, Mentone' 1887 depicts a relaxing summer's day on Port Phillip Bay, south of Melbourne. The beach is seen at eye-level, making us feel as if we are there, walking along the coarse sandy foreshore.

The sun is at its peak, since the shadows are cast directly down and form the darkest tonal areas of the painting. The shadowed cliff, painted in deep browns, introduces a sense of solidity into an otherwise light and shimmering scene. Roberts has not concerned himself with realistic detail; the trees on top of the cliff become a single mass of various greens, the seated woman's costume lacks any specific detailing and her face remains quite featureless.

Roberts has caught the casual atmosphere in a single moment, as in a snapshot. The people and even the dog in this painting are no longer in awe of, or conquering, nature as in earlier colonial art; rather they remain at ease with the environment and use it solely for leisure. The painting celebrates the general characteristics of sea, beach and cliffs at Mentone as the seated onlooker and the boating party enjoy a warm summer's day.

'Slumbering sea, Mentone'  was painted in the summer of early 1887 and is highly likely to be a plein air work completed in one or a couple of painting sessions. Roberts painted wet into wet oil paint (alla prima), therefore dabbing effects were produced to avoid mixing the paints on the surface of the painting. The luminous quality of the work was achieved by painting on to a white ground and using colours that were light and equal in tone.

Australian Impressionism

Australian Impressionism refers to an Australian art movement in the nineteenth century. The movement is noted for its exhibition of en plein air paintings in the Heidelberg on the outskirts of Melbourne city. 

The major artists of this movements were Arthur Streeton,  Charles Conders, Frederick McCubbin and Tom Roberts. These artists worked together in the open air at the “artists’ camps” in the 1880s-90s. Their paintings  were based on naturalist and impressionist ideas showcasing the Australian life. This group of Australian artists are also referred to as “Heidelberg School” . 

The works of these artists are notable, not only for their merits as compositions, but as part of Australia's cultural heritage.

The art works of these artists were exhibited in their groundbreaking “9 by 5 Impression Exhibition” held in Melbourne in 1889. 

Majority of the 183 works incorporated into display were painted on wooden cigar-box panels, measuring 9 by 5 inches (23 × 13 cm). The exhibition gained much recognition and popularity as most of the works sold in no time. 

Many of the works of the Australian impressionists remain the most iconic and popular images in Australian culture.

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton - The Biography

Arthur Ernest Streeton, nicknamed, 'Smike' was born at Mt. Duneed, near Geelong in Victoria on 8th April 1867.  He studied drawing at the National Gallery School while at the same time he was apprenticed to a lithographer. Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin discovered him painting at Beaumaris, and together with Charles Conder they went on sketching camps to Box Hill, Mentone and Eaglemont, near Heidelberg.  In 1899 they held the inaugural  5'' x 7'' Impressionist Exhibition in Melbourne. 

Seeking wider experience Streeton sailed for London in 1898 and while living in Chelsea he painted impressions of London and the Thames. Returning to Melbourne in 1906, he held a very successful exhibition and sent paintings to Europe and America where he received considerable critical recognition.

  

During World War I, Streeton was commissioned as an official War Artist in France and became a strong influence in creating a distinctive Australian school of landscape and still life painters - the Heidelberg School.  

He maintained a high public profile and was knighted in 1937. Finally he settled down in the lush greenery of Olinda, Victoria, where he died in 1943.

''His paintings are full of vitality, a fresh individual response to the land and an instinctive immediate reaction to the light and colour of Australia''.

In 1890 they moved from Melbourne to Little Sirius Cove in Sydney where many of the works they created were purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.