Tom roberts rejected sold
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
Thomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931), artist, was born on 9 March 1856 at Dorchester, Dorset, England, elder son of Richard Roberts, journalist, and his wife Matilda Agnes Cela, née Evans. Tom was educated at Dorchester Grammar School. After her husband's death Matilda and her three children migrated in 1869 to Melbourne where they lived at Collingwood. The first years were difficult for a poor family and Tom helped his mother to sew satchels after work. He soon became interested in art and studied at the Collingwood and Carlton artisans' schools of design in 1873; at the latter Louis Buvelot and Eugen von Guerard awarded him a prize for a landscape. In 1874 he joined the National Gallery School where he attended Thomas Clark's classes in design. Though the school listed his occupation as photographer, his responsibilities at Stewart's, photographers in Bourke Street, were confined to arranging backdrops and studio sets and sometimes posing the sitters for portraits.
Roberts was one of the first painters to recognize the special character o
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Tom Roberts
Biography
An influential landscape painter, Tom Roberts had a profound impact on Australian art with his use of impressionistic techniques and promotion of painting outdoors or en plein air. He was considered the leader of the Heidelberg school (also known as the Australian Impressionists) – the first distinctively Australian school of painting. A vocal advocate for ‘national’ subject matter, he produced many iconic artworks of rural labour and the light and atmosphere of the bush. A skilful and versatile artist, he was also a popular portraitist in Melbourne and Sydney.
Roberts was born in Dorchester, England, although some mystery surrounds his actual birthdate: his birth certificate says 8 March 1856, for example, while his tombstone is inscribed 9 March. Roberts moved to Australia in 1869, where he studied at the National Gallery of Victoria schools in Melbourne from 1874. Returning to England in 1881, he was selected to study in the Royal Academy schools. He toured Spain in 1883 with Australian artist John Peter Russell, where he met Spanish artists Lorreano
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The Artists
Tom Roberts
Biography
Tom Roberts c. 1903
H. Walter Barnett, 1862-1934
Hyde Park Corner, London
Private Collection
Thomas William Roberts, artist and photographer, was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England on 8 March 1856. He was the son of Richard Roberts, editor of the Dorset County Chronicle and Cela Matilda Roberts, nee Evans.
In the 1860's he attended Hardye's Grammar School in Dorchester. His father died at the age of 41, on 30 December 1868, and on 20 March 1869, Tom and his widowed mother, and his brother, Richard (Dick) and sister, Alice sailed from London on the True Briton to join relatives already living in Melbourne. They arrived at Geelong, Victoria on 22 June 1869, and travelled on to Melbourne, settling in Collingwood. His address between 1871 and 1874 was Dight Street, Collingwood.
In 1871, Tom commenced night classes at the East Collingwood Artisans' School of Design, and also found work as a photographer's assistant at Hewitt's photographic studios in Collingwood. He later left Hewitt's and found work in Stewart's photograp
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