TOM ROBERTS’ BIRTHDAY TODAY

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In 1888 Tom Roberts, along with Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder became foundation members of the Victorian Artists’ Society when the Victorian Academy of the Arts and the Australian Artists’ Association merged.

In 2001 on this day, In the Artists Footsteps, the first educational website to bring together the lives and works of Australia’s most famous early artists, was launched at Parliament House, Canberra at the doors of the Senate, by the Hon David Kemp in front of the famous Tom Roberts painting, Opening of the First Parliament, 1903.

Today on his birthday we invite you to take a tour of the life of Tom Roberts and his work so eloquently written by Art Historian Andrew Mackenzie OAM.
Ron Smith
Director Communications, Victorian Artists’ Society
Contact:  0417 329 201
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Photograph of Tom Roberts at Kallista late 1920’s
Private Collection

 

Tom Roberts, painter and photographer, was born on 8 March 1856 at Dorchester, Dorset, England. 
 
He arrived in Geelong on 22 June 1869, and settled in Collingwood. In his early years he was encouraged to paint plein-air by Louis Buvelot and his interest in plein-air painting was further stimulated by a study tour of Europe between 1881 and 1885.
 
 In 1889, he exhibited 62 works in the 9 x 5 Impression Exhibition. On 30 April 1896, he married 35 year old, Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson at St. Hilary’s Anglican Church, East Kew. In 1903, the couple travelled to London.
 
They returned in 1923 and settled at ‘Talisman’, their small cottage on half an acre, in Kallista. Tom Roberts, who was known as ‘Bulldog’ to his friends, died at ‘Talisman’ on 14 September 1931, and his ashes are buried in the Illawarra churchyard, near Longford, Tasmania.
Parliament
OPENING OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
BY H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CORNWALL AND YORK, (LATER H.M. KING GEORGE V)
 MAY 9 1901 (1903)
oil on canvas, 304.5 x 509.2 cm
Collection: On permanent loan to the Parliament of Australia from the British Royal Collection
 
Tom_Roberts_-_Shearing_the_Rams
SHEARING THE RAMS, 1888-1890
oil on canvas mounted on board, 121.9 x 182.6 cm
Felton Bequest Fund 1932
Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
 
 
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THE ARTISTS’ CAMP, 1886
oil on canvas 45.7 x 60.8 cm
Felton Bequest 1943
Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
This work commemorates the site of David Houst
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                                  The Victorian Artists’ Society
                         The Victorian Artists’ Society  at 430 Albert Street, East Melbourne
 
Click here to view a history of the Victorian Artists Society building.
 
Media Enquiries:
Ron Smith, Media Communications, Victorian Artists’ Society
Mobile: 0417 329 201