English-born Australian1856–1931
Tom Roberts
An English-born Australian painter who led the Heidelberg School, setting up the outdoor painting camps around Melbourne where Australian Impressionism began. Trained at the Royal Academy Schools in London, he painted rural work, portraits and the first sitting of Australia's federal parliament.
A life in paintings
- 1856Born
- 1883Was influenced by Ramon CasasGranada, Spain
On a summer trip through Spain in 1883, the young Roberts met the Catalan painters Ramon Casas and Laureano Barrau in Granada. They urged him to paint a direct sketch outdoors in front of the subject, an approach he took home to Melbourne two years later. (The Enciclopèdia Catalana dates Casas's Granada stay to 1884.)
Source: artgallery.nsw.gov.au - 1886Worked with Arthur StreetonMentone, Box Hill and Eaglemont, Victoria
Roberts and his companions found the teenage Streeton painting outdoors on the beach at Mentone in the summer of 1886–87 and brought him into their camps. They painted side by side at Box Hill and then at Eaglemont above Heidelberg, and both showed in the 1889 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition.
Source: Wikipedia - 1888Worked with Charles ConderSydney, then Box Hill and Heidelberg, Victoria
Roberts met Conder in Sydney in 1888 and the two painted together there. Conder moved to Melbourne that year and joined Roberts and Streeton at their outdoor painting camps, first at Box Hill and, from late 1888, at Heidelberg.
Source: Wikipedia - 1890
- 1931Died
Circles
Exhibition · Buxton's Rooms, Melbourne · 1889
9 by 5 Impression Exhibition (1889)
Held in August 1889 and named for the 9 × 5 inch cigar-box lids most of the works were painted on. Conder designed the catalogue cover.
Group · Melbourne · 1885
Heidelberg School
Australian Impressionists who painted outdoors at artists' camps around Melbourne — Box Hill, Mentone and Eaglemont above Heidelberg — from the mid-1880s.
Where to see them
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Pro puzzle · Upgrade to play