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Tom (1856) Roberts Sold at Auction Prices
Figure painter, Painter, Portrait painter, b. 1856 - d. 1931
English artist Tom Roberts' portraits of rural Australians and farmers reveal his love for the country he emigrated to at a young age with his family. In 1881, Roberts returned to England to study at the Royal Academy in London, but he would eventually go back to the place of his youth. When presented to Australia's art community, Tom Roberts' artwork introduced Impressionism to the country for the first time.
Focusing on the Australian rural life of ranchers and cattlemen, Tom Roberts' landscape paintings of Australian bush country are among his most recognized works. Roberts helped create outdoor artist camps in remote areas, promoting open-air painting. Tom Roberts portraits and landscapes were so popular that he was commissioned to paint the opening of the First Federal Parliament of Australia in 1901. View many artists' acclaimed portrait paintings for sale online, and select from a variety of moving pieces.
A Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by the late Tom Roberts Opened by The Honourable F W Eggleston. Held At The Fine Art Society's gallery 100 Exhibition Street, Melbourne 21st June to 2nd July, 1932. Original wrappers. Unpaginated but 16 pages with 3 black and white plates and 4 colour plates tipped in. Limited to 250 copies. Near mint copy
TOM ROBERTS (AUSTRALIAN 1856-1931)PORTRAIT OF MARY LUSHINGTON BERNARD D'OYLY, WIFE OF A. F. BERNARD OF COMBE RALEIGH, HONITON AND DAUGHTER OF SIR CHARLES D'OYLY, BARTOil on canvasSigned and dated '1921' (lower left)76 x 63cm UnframedProvenance:Marjorie Churchill, daughter of the sitterThence by descent to the current ownerThomas William (Tom) Roberts (1856-1931) was born in Dorchester, Dorset, but migrated to Melbourne in 1869. Roberts was the first major Australian painter to be selected to study at the Royal Academy of Arts which he attended from 1881 to 1884, where he was strongly influenced by painters such as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Jules Bastien-Lepage and his followers in Newlyn and Glasgow, as well as other plein air artists which Roberts met on a tour of Spain in 1883. After returning to Melbourne in 1885 he was at forefront of the development of Australian impressionism, becoming one of the founding members of the Heidelberg School. Working alongside Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder, he attempted to capture Australia's light, heat and the special character of the Australian landscape with the same plein air principles imbued with a sense of nationalism. Roberts would return to England in 1903, keeping a studio in London for nearly twenty years before finally returning to Melbourne in 1923. From London he would make several excursions from Lake Como to Dorset, and in The Oil Paintings of Tom Roberts in the National Gallery of Australia (NGA, Canberra, 1997) Dr. Mary Eagle, noted that 'In the third week of August [1921] he went to Combe Raleigh, near Honiton in Devon, to paint a portrait of Mrs B D'O', which she now believes to be the present portrait of Mary Lushington Bernard D'Oyly (private communications 28 April 2023). In a letter to Roberts' wife dated 24th of August that year, he includes a little sketch of the portrait and mentions 'The colour is a good pale blue on Gold B'ground'. He also relates: 'I haven't written as there was no news, except I wasn't getting on too happily with the portrait - I've got hold of it now & it goes well - There is much difficulty in working in an ordinary room - one gets jammed up, the light deceives one - when the place is not spacious & you are right against the window. They are very pleased & there is the best to go into it yet. They are off to Exeter, motoring to some races, the daughter in something dark the mother my sitter very spring like & lace & pearls.' (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, ML MSS 4586 2(2) transcribed by Dr. Mary Eagle). As with so many artists, portraits were Roberts' bread and butter, but his portraits of contemporary figures were no less important than his landscape and subject pictures. 'Not only are many of his portraits important records of notable figures, but a great number of them are also fine examples of Roberts' skill and individuality as a portraitist. His portraits of women in particular show great flair.' (Helen Topliss, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume II, 1988, online version 2006 and Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A catalogue raisonné, Vol. I. p. 21).Mary Lushington was born in 1856 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India to Emelie Jane Nott (1834-1857) and Major-General Sir Charles D'Oyly, 9th Bart. Of Newlands, Blandford, Dorset (1822-1900). In 1877 she married Arthur Francis Bernard, J.P. (1850-1915), of Combe Raleigh, by that time Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry, which he joined in 1876 after serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Ashanti War and retiring with the rank of Lieutenant in 1875. Together they had five children, Henry D'Oyly, Ruth Capel, Charles Camplin, Muriel Awdry and Marjorie Churchill. We kindly thank Dr. Mary Eagle, former senior curator of the National Gallery of Australia, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.
THOMAS WILLIAM (TOM) ROBERTS (1856-1931) ACROSS THE YARRA VALLEY TO KINGLAKE Signed and dated 1889 verso on stretcher Oil on canvas 15 x 25.5cm Estimate $15,000/25,000 AUD
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) RIVER OMEGA, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1901 oil on wood panel 19.5 x 35.5 cm signed lower left: Tom Roberts signed and dated lower centre: Roberts [illeg.] 1901 bears inscription on label verso: RUBIN COLLECTION / Roberts Tom / River Omega PROVENANCE Major Harold de Vahl Rubin, Sydney Christie’s, Sydney, 4 October 1972, lot 416 Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Alan Greenway, Australia and USA, acquired from the above in 1972 Thence by descent Private collection, California, USA EXHIBITED Spring Exhibition 1972: Recent Acquisitions, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 8 – 24 November 1972, cat. 19 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE Topliss, H., Tom Roberts, 1856 – 1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. I, p. 168, cat. 365, vol. II (illus.) ESSAY Tom Roberts is renowned in Australian art for his grand vistas of national life, full of the blazing light akin to his fellow Heidelberg artists. However, on closer examination, his palette is more muted than the glare so beloved by Arthur Streeton and in Robert’s smaller works, this becomes even more apparent. Paintings such as Trafalgar Square, c.1884 (Art Gallery of South Australia); Cloud study, c.1889/1901 (National Gallery of Victoria); and Saplings, 1889 (Art Gallery of South Australia) are extremely low key, even foggy, and clearly indicate why he later became so enthusiastic about Clarice Beckett’s paintings which he encountered in in the late 1920s.1 In River Omega, 1901, this delicate sensibility is pronounced in a composition dominated by soft blues and creamy ochre. It is also one of the very few landscapes painted by Roberts during these years. The Omega Headland is a small promontory 130 kilometres south of Sydney and is near the junction of the Werri Creek where it spills into the Pacific Ocean on the traditional lands of the Dharawal people. Stretching back inland is low-lying alluvial land enriched by ancient eruptions from Saddleback Mountain which rises in the distance. The native cedar trees were rapidly logged by early European settlers who cleared much of the forest to establish dairy farms. Later residents further altered the land by blasting rocks near the headland to build a concrete channel to admit tidal waters into the creek.2 Another artist attracted to the area was Lloyd Rees who painted there from 1939 and some of his many views of the region bear a striking resemblance to Robert’s River Omega, including Omega pastoral, 1950 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), and Sea at Omega, 1957 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Like Rees, Roberts stood on the sands between the creek and ocean, looking inland, a view encompassing the sinuous twists of the creek, sand banks, sparse trees and the hills beyond. The modest scale of the wooden panel concentrates the detail and indicates that River Omega was probably started en plein air before being finished in the studio. One reason for the small number of landscapes painted by Roberts at the time was the continuing effects of the 1890s depression and his major key to survival were portrait commissions. ‘“Portraits pay, George my boy,” the dear chap would say, as he would soften the red tint on the nose of a politician.’3 River Omega is the only landscape from 1901 recorded in Helen Topliss’ catalogue raisonné, but another of a slightly smaller size – Near Ballina, 1901, oil on wood panel, 19 x 35.5 cm, owned by Norman Schurek – was also recorded in the catalogue for the artist’s retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1947. In spite of its scale, Roberts took great pride in these paintings and carried a number with him to London in 1903, where he wrote in 1909 that they ‘(hold) up with all my late stuff and they with it. A kind of touchstone and I didn’t know it.’4 For many years, River Omega was owned by the eccentric grazier, The Honourable Major Harold de Vahl, whose sprawling collection included other works by Roberts as well as examples by Picasso, Degas, Renoir, Dobell and Streeton amongst many others. 1. Robert’s Sunrise, Tasmania, c.1928 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) is claimed to be his direct response to seeing Beckett’s paintings. 2. See Rees, L., & Free, R., Lloyd Rees: an artist remembers, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1987, p. 57 3. Taylor, G., Those were the days, Tyrell’s, Sydney, 1918, p. 100 4. Tom Roberts, letter to S.W. Pring, 11 February 1909, Mitchell Library, Sydney, MLMSS 1367/2 ANDREW GAYNOR
TOM ROBERTS 1856-1931 (The High Street) (circa 1883) gouache and watercolour on paper signed 'Tom Roberts.' lower right 20.5 x 8 cm PROVENANCE Tom Roberts, London Mrs Violet Spry, Melbourne Private Collection, Hobart, by descent from the above Fine Asian, Australian & European Arts & Design, Smith & Singer (trading as Sotheby's Australia), Sydney, 21 June 2017, lot 231, illustrated Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) PORTRAIT OF EILEEN (VERSO: COSTAL LANDSCAPE), c.1892 verso: costal landscape oil on wood panel (double–sided) 19.5 x 25.5 cm signed and inscribed lower left: T.L.M/ Tom Roberts PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney Rushton Fine Arts, Sydney, 7 July 1987, lot 83 (as 'Portrait of Elaine') Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Brisbane Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 9 May 2007, lot 32 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Selected Australian Impressionist Paintings, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 18 April – 12 May 1990, cat. 3 (illus., as 'Elaine', c.1896) LITERATURE Cotter, J., Tom Roberts and the Art of Portraiture, Thames & Hudson, Melbourne, 2015, pp. 20, 21 (illus. Coastal Landscape) 238, 243 (illus. Portrait of Eileen) ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David’s research and writing in this catalogue entry. Tom Roberts was a gifted portrait painter who created grand images of bushrangers and shearers that have entered the national pantheon. For The Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia by H.R.H. The Duke of Cornwall and York (Later King George V) 9 May 1901, 1903 (Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra) he was required to sketch and paint nearly three hundred portraits, working directly from the model. Numerous other portraits date from before and after this ‘Big Picture’, notable for their portrayal of character and life. During the 1890s he completed a series of male portraits on cedar or oak panels – of composers, musicians, actors, all carried out with a Whistlerian elegance and finesse. His portraits of women are invariably full of charm and beauty, whether a lady of fashion as in The Paris Hat, 1892 (New England Regional Art Museum, Howard Hinton Collection), or a disarming child such as Lily Stirling, c.1890 (National Gallery of Victoria). The present portrait is identified as Mrs Eileen Tooker on the basis of its similarity to Roberts’ celebrated work, Eileen, 1892, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. (Significantly, the Gallery purchased Eileen the year it was painted, making it, together with Aboriginal Head- Charlie Turner, c.1892, the first works by Roberts to enter a public collection.) Both profile portraits of this striking Irish woman depict the same strong facial features, prominent nose and chin, similar hairstyles and large hats. Moreover, the beautifully fresh, smaller version on offer has all the immediacy of a study from life – pink flesh tones and red and white highlights against a darkly warm background. Roberts often enjoyed the profile, adopting it for a number of other portraits of the time, including the already mentioned The Paris Hat, At the Post Office, 1892 and Portrait of a Lady, 1892, whose features are not entirely unfamiliar. His male portraits for 1892 included Sir Henry Parkes (Art Gallery of South Australia) and Sir Charles Windeyer. The reverse of the panel has an equally vivid, broadly handled landscape, possibly of New South Wales – its smallness of scale in no way diminishing its bravura performance. Notably, from the summer through to autumn of 1891, Roberts was at Corowa painting his iconic A Break Away, 1891 (Art Gallery of South Australia) and the landscape here betrays a similarly sun-drenched atmosphere, with the deep blue waters suggesting a river estuary or, perhaps a coastal location.
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) PORTRAIT OF CALEB ROBERTS, c.1898 oil on canvas 42.0 x 33.5 cm signed lower right: Tom Roberts PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney Lawsons, Sydney, 15 November 1994, lot 154 Private collection, Sydney RELATED WORK Caleb Roberts, c.1898, pastel on paper, 53.5 x 39.5 cm, private collection, in Topliss, H., Tom Roberts 1856 – 1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 155 – 156, cat. 302, vol. 2, pl. 135 (illus.) ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AM, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's research and writing in this catalogue entry. Writing from London to his close friend, S.W. Pring, sometime honorary secretary of the Society of Arts, Sydney, Tom Roberts included a pen sketch of himself at his easel painting this portrait of his only son, Caleb (1898 – 1965).1 Named after his maternal grandfather, Caleb Williamson, he made his appearance in his father’s art shortly after his birth on 31 January 1898, in a series of pencil sketches, including some gently intimate moments with his mother.2 Roberts also drew a separate pencil study of a big-eyed baby; a pastel of a less happy moment; and a full pastel portrait. In the same vein as the latter pastel, the present Portrait of Caleb Roberts, c.1899 similarly captures that characteristic directness of gaze of the young, combined with that special look that belongs to a new life, so innocent and appealing. By 1905, when Caleb – or ‘Ca’ as he was called – would have been seven years old, Roberts painted his son again, this time as a young schoolboy, whose face is still dominated by his eyes and direct look, a childhood innocence now touched by experience. While self-portraits provide fascinating insights into the personalities of the artists who paint themselves, those of artists’ children are invariably touching in their own intimacy. And so, it is with Portrait of Caleb Roberts, c.1899, for Roberts was particularly gifted at portraying children and young people – his pastel Elizabeth and Carmen Pinschoff, 1900 (National Gallery of Victoria) being among his very best. With all the attention paid to the big subject pictures of Tom Roberts, there is a tendency to overlook the fact that he was a very good painter of portraits. Roberts painted fellow artists and musicians, charming ladies, the very highly placed, and some engaging images of his wife and son. In the Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1901 – 03, he portrayed the whole galaxy of Australian political talent. During the early 1900s, Roberts’ chief source of income came from painting portraits. Furthermore, artists often used members of their families as models, including Roberts’ life-long friend, Frederick McCubbin, who also frequently used his wife and children in his subject and landscape paintings. Soon after another oil portrait of Caleb in 1905, Roberts made a plaster relief of his wife, Lillie, followed by the oil painting of c.1906 in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia. In between, he completed the large and formal portrait of Rt. Hon. Marquis Linlithgow, c.1905, now in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. His last portrait of Caleb was another plaster cast of about 1907. A posthumous bronze cast of this sculpture is housed in the collection of Monash University, Melbourne. 1. This pen sketch is illustrated in Topliss, H., Tom Roberts, 1856 – 1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, 2 vols; see vol. I, p. 61, pl. 72 2. Ibid., p. 246, sketchbook X
TOM ROBERTS (1856-1931) At Phillip Island 1886 etching signed, titled and dated in plate within image LISTED IN ARTIST'S CATALOGUE RAISONNE, CAT NO. 760. 11.5 x 18cm
TOM ROBERTS (1856-1931) The School Track c1900 oil on panel 23.0 x 14.0 cm bears inscription verso from the artist's son, Caleb Roberts: By Tom Roberts/ Between 1896-1901/ STEPS/ Balmain/ Sydney/ C.G.R.
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) RIVER OMEGA, NEW SOUTH WALES, 1901 oil on wood panel 19.5 x 35.5 cm signed lower left: Tom Roberts signed and dated lower centre: Roberts [illeg.] 1901 bears inscription on label verso: RUBIN COLLECTION / Roberts Tom / River Omega PROVENANCE Major Harold de Vahl Rubin, Sydney Christie’s, Sydney, 4 October 1972, lot 416 Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Mr Alan Greenway, Australia and USA, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, California, USA EXHIBITED Spring Exhibition 1972: Recent Acquisitions, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 8 – 24 November 1972, cat. 19 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE Topliss, H., Tom Roberts, 1856 – 1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. I, p. 168, cat. 365, vol. II (illus.) ESSAY Tom Roberts is renowned in Australian art for his grand vistas of national life, full of the blazing light akin to his fellow Heidelberg artists. However, on closer examination, his palette is more muted than the glare so beloved by Arthur Streeton and in Robert’s smaller works, this becomes even more apparent. Paintings such as Trafalgar Square, c.1884 (Art Gallery of South Australia); Cloud study, c.1889/1901 (National Gallery of Victoria); and Saplings, 1889 (Art Gallery of South Australia) are extremely low key, even foggy, and clearly indicate why he later became so enthusiastic about Clarice Beckett’s paintings which he encountered in in the late 1920s.1 In River Omega, 1901, this delicate sensibility is pronounced in a composition dominated by soft blues and creamy ochre. It is also one of the very few landscapes painted by Roberts during these years. The Omega Headland is a small promontory 130 kilometres south of Sydney and is near the junction of the Werri Creek where it spills into the Pacific Ocean on the traditional lands of the Dharawal people. Stretching back inland is low-lying alluvial land enriched by ancient eruptions from Saddleback Mountain which rises in the distance. The native cedar trees were rapidly logged by early European settlers who cleared much of the forest to establish dairy farms. Later residents further altered the land by blasting rocks near the headland to build a concrete channel to admit tidal waters into the creek.2 Another artist attracted to the area was Lloyd Rees who painted there from 1939 and some of his many views of the region bear a striking resemblance to Robert’s River Omega, including Omega pastoral, 1950 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), and Sea at Omega, 1957 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Like Rees, Roberts stood on the sands between the creek and ocean, looking inland, a view encompassing the sinuous twists of the creek, sand banks, sparse trees and the hills beyond. The modest scale of the wooden panel concentrates the detail and indicates that River Omega was probably started en plein air before being finished in the studio. One reason for the small number of landscapes painted by Roberts at the time was the continuing effects of the 1890s depression and his major key to survival were portrait commissions. ‘“Portraits pay, George my boy,” the dear chap would say, as he would soften the red tint on the nose of a politician.’3 River Omega is the only landscape from 1901 recorded in Helen Topliss’ catalogue raisonné, but another of a slightly smaller size – Near Ballina, 1901, oil on wood panel, 19 x 35.5 cm, owned by Norman Schurek – was also recorded in the catalogue for the artist’s retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1947. In spite of its scale, Roberts took great pride in these paintings and carried a number with him to London in 1903, where he wrote in 1909 that they ‘(hold) up with all my late stuff and they with it. A kind of touchstone and I didn’t know it.’4 For many years, River Omega was owned by the eccentric grazier, The Honourable Major Harold de Vahl, whose sprawling collection included other works by Roberts as well as examples by Picasso, Degas, Renoir, Dobell and Streeton amongst many others. 1. Robert’s Sunrise, Tasmania, c.1928 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) is claimed to be his direct response to seeing Beckett’s paintings. 2. See Rees, L., & Free, R., Lloyd Rees: an artist remembers, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1987, p. 57 3. Taylor, G., Those were the days, Tyrell’s, Sydney, 1918, p. 100 4. Tom Roberts, letter to S.W. Pring, 11 February 1909, Mitchell Library, Sydney, MLMSS 1367/2 ANDREW GAYNOR
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) PORTRAIT OF FLORENCE GREAVES, 1898 pastel on paper on compressed card 89.0 x 53.5 cm signed and dated lower left: Tom Roberts / 1898 . PROVENANCE Private collection Dalia Stanley & Co., Sydney, 3 December 1995, lot 25 Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITED Tom Roberts: Retrospective, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 4 October – 17 November 1996; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 29 November 1996 – 27 January 1997; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 11 February – 6 April 1997; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 April – 1 June 1997; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 11 June – 27 July 1997, cat. 63 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Radford, R., Tom Roberts: Retrospective, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1996, p. 210 (illus., as ‘Portrait of a standing woman’) Cotter, J., Tom Roberts & The Art of Portraiture, Thames and Hudson, Melbourne, 2015, fig. 6.5, pp. 278, 280 (illus., as ‘Portrait of a Standing Woman’) RELATED WORK Miss Florence Greaves, 1898, pastel on paper, 41.0 x 34.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Portrait of Florence, c.1898, oil on canvas on paperboard, 66.6 x 38.7 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ESSAY Hailed as the father of Australian landscape painting, Tom Roberts holds an important place in the history of Australian art, particularly renowned for great nationalistic pictures painted in the years leading up to Federation, including Shearing the Rams, 1888 – 90 (National Gallery of Victoria) and A Break Away!, 1891 (Art Gallery of South Australia). Signifiers of national identity centred on nineteenth century rural life and activity, these paintings still resonate with contemporary audiences and remain on permanent display in the public galleries that house them. The fact that portraiture makes up around a third of Roberts’ painted oeuvre comes as something of a surprise, but he was a skilled painter of people, able to capture the mood and character of his subjects in addition to accurately describing their physical likeness. His motivation was often practical – as he once explained to a friend, ‘Portraits pay, … my boy’1 – with commissions of politicians and other public figures easier to secure than patronage for large and time-consuming subject and history pictures.2 Roberts’ was also attuned to the potential historical significance of portraiture however, and in 1896 he embarked on a series of small paintings on timber panels titled ‘Familiar Faces and Figures’ – depicting fellow artists, musicians, journalists and public officials, among others – which he hoped would be kept together for posterity.3 Roberts particularly excelled in the depiction of female subjects and, as Helen Topliss has noted, portraits such as Madame Pfund, c. 1887 (National Gallery of Victoria) and Eileen, 1892 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), reveal his love of female personalities and companionship, as well as his aesthetic response to the decorative elements of women’s dress.4 This full-length pastel of Florence Greaves (1873 – 1959) exemplifies this aspect of his work, making a feature of the flowers on her hat, the delicately-speckled veil and ruffled white petticoats glimpsed beneath the hem of her skirt – highlighting ornamental details in what is otherwise a plain, although very stylish outfit. Depicting his subject in profile, Roberts emphasises her fine features, as well as creating a strong sense of diagonal movement through the composition, leading the eye from her jawbone through to the tip of the umbrella. He adopted a similar view in two other portraits of Greaves made around the same time, a pastel head study dated 1898 and the beautiful bust in oil, Florence Greaves, c.1898, both of which she bequeathed to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Greaves was an early student at Julian Ashton’s Sydney Art School, also studying at London’s Slade School in the late 1920s, and it is likely that it was Ashton who introduced her to Roberts.5 In 1894, Roberts visited the Greaves’ family cattle station, Newbold, located on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales. Returning three years later, he began work on A Mountain Muster, 1897 – 1920s (National Gallery of Victoria) there, painting the portraits of Florence the year after, and another of her mother in 1899.6 1. Roberts quoted in Taylor, G., Those Were the Days, Sydney, 1918, p. 100 quoted in Topliss, H., Tom Roberts 1856-1931, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, p. 20 2. See Topliss, ibid. 3. See Topliss, ibid., pp. 21-22 4. Topliss, H., ‘Portraiture and Nationalism’ in Radford, R., Tom Roberts, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1996, p. 154 5. Kolenberg, H., Ryan, A. and James, P., 19th century Australian Watercolours, Drawings & Pastels from the Gallery’s Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005, p. 120 6. Mrs W. A. B Greaves, 1899, oil on canvas, 77.5 x 60.0 cm (oval), Art Gallery of New South Wales KIRSTY GRANT
TOM ROBERTS 1856-1931 Top of Our Tent, Mosman 1894 gouache on card signed, dated and inscribed 'Tom Roberts / May 21. 94 - / Top our tent, Mosman' lower left 23.1 x 9.3 cm PROVENANCE Tom Roberts, Melbourne Private Collection, Melbourne, by descent from the above R.H. Croll, Melbourne, acquired from the above in December 1944 Private Collection, Melbourne
TOM ROBERTS 1856-1931 A Water Carrier, Granada 1883 oil on wood panel signed, dated and inscribed 'A Water Carrier / Granada / Oct 1883 / Tom Roberts' verso 16 x 21 cm frame: original, John Thallon, Melbourne (label verso) PROVENANCE Tom Roberts, Melbourne Mr C. Stewart, Melbourne, acquired from the above Tom Roberts, Melbourne Private Collection, Tasmania, by descent from the above Young & Park, Melbourne, January 1949 Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above LITERATURE Virginia Spate, Tom Roberts, MA Thesis, The Univeristy of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1964, cat. no. 10 Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, Vol. 1, cat. no. 23a, pp. 84-85 Humphrey McQueen, Tom Roberts, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 1996, p. 122 OTHER NOTES together with PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MELBOURNE TOM ROBERTS 1856-1931 Sketch for A Water Carrier, Granada (1883) ink on paper signed and inscribed 'T.R. / Spanish Water Carrier / at Granada / Excuse the roughness of the sketch / the mail closes today and I have / only this morning to write all my / letters up -' lower right 12.2 x 13.2 cm PROVENANCE Tom Roberts, Melbourne Mr C. Stewart, Melbourne, acquired from the above Tom Roberts, Melbourne Private Collection, Tasmania, by descent from the above Young & Park, Melbourne, January 1949 Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above LITERATURE Virginia Spate, Tom Roberts, MA Thesis, The Univeristy of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1964, cat. no. 11 Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford Univeristy Press, Melbourne, 1985, Vol. 1, cat. no. 23a, p. 85
THOMAS (TOM) ROBERTS (1856-1931) Drovers Resting, Early Morning oil on board signed with initials lower right: TR 29 x 21cm EXHIBITED Christopher Day Gallery, Sydney, Early Australian Paintings, 1984 Private Collection, Melbourne
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) COASTAL ISLANDS, TASMANIA, c.1925 - 26 oil on canvas board 18.0 x 25.0 cm signed indistinctly lower left: ROBERTS PROVENANCE Mrs. Frederick McCubbin, Melbourne Louis McCubbin, Melbourne Stefan Heysen, Adelaide, c.1960 Theodore Bruce, Adelaide Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide LITERATURE Topliss, H., Tom Roberts: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, cat. 596, p. 596, vol. II, pl. 228 (illus., as 'Untitled Landscape. Maria Island (?)')
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) KIRRIBILLI POINT, SYDNEY, c.1895 oil on wood panel 18.0 x 25.5 cm PROVENANCE Mr H. L Johnstone Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 7 March 1969, lot 26 (as ‘Sydney Harbour, c.1880’) Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITED Exhibition of Past Australian Painters Lent From Private South Australian Collections, Adelaide Festival of Arts, John Martin & Co. Limited, Adelaide, 8 – 29 March 1974, cat. 98 (as ‘Summer’) LITERATURE Spate, V., Tom Roberts, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1978, cat. 86 Topliss, H., T om Roberts: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, cat. 284, vol. II, pl. 128 (as ‘Untitled, Kirribilli Point’, c.1890 – 98) ESSAY Hailed as the father of Australian landscape painting, Tom Roberts holds a significant place in the history of Australian art. With Fred McCubbin and Louis Abrahams, he established the first painting camp at Box Hill in the summer of 1885, cementing the local practice of plein air painting with naturalistic images which celebrated the ‘wild bush, tall young saplings with the sun glistening on their leaves’.1 Four years later, Roberts was the instigator of the famous 9x5 Impression Exhibition held at Buxton’s Rooms in Melbourne, where 183 small paintings – many on cigar box lids – declared that quick, painterly impressions emphasising fleeting atmospheric effects were the artistic order of the day. Roberts is perhaps best known, however, for his large and consciously nationalistic pictures which have become iconic depictions of life in Australia including Shearing the Rams, 1888-90 (National Gallery of Victoria) and A Break Away!, 1891 (Art Gallery of South Australia). Painted during the late nineteenth century, in the years leading up to the Federation of Australia, these pictures remain on permanent display in the public galleries that house them, markers of national identity centred on rural life and activity, which still have relevance despite Australia’s urbanisation and the fact that most of the population resides in cities along the coastal periphery. Although Roberts and his fellow members of the so-called Heidelberg School are strongly associated with the rural Australian landscape, they lived predominantly urban lives and were at home in close proximity to the city. Bush scenes were painted during camps and on excursions made possible by the extension of the railway network around Melbourne. Later, Roberts travelled widely, seeking varied subjects for his work, but he also consistently maintained city-based studios. In Melbourne for example, he was at 95 Collins Street in 1885 – where he probably began work on the view of Melbourne’s bustling centre, Allegro con brio, Bourke Street west, c.1885-86, reworked 1890 (National Gallery of Australia and the National Library of Australia) – then the St James Building, 59 William Street (1887) and from 1888, a residential studio on the top floor of Collins Street’s new Grosvenor Chambers. A member of the Buonarotti Club, as well as a founding member of both the Australian Artists’ Association and the Victorian Artists’ Society, Roberts was actively involved in Melbourne’s artistic community during these years. He also understood the importance of cultivating the audience for his work, and the critical need for enthusiastic patrons, opening his studio for previews and socialising with the right people. To this end, he was successful, as the range of sitters who feature in his extensive portrait oeuvre attests. Visiting Sydney for several weeks in March-April 1888, Roberts met the young Charles Conder and working side by side, the two artists famously painted views of Coogee Bay from the same vantage point.2 Roberts’ Holiday Sketch at Coogee, 1888 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) reflects his delight in the beauty of the scene and the intensity of Sydney’s light and colour. The vibrant blue of the ocean is a central focus. Other seascapes from the time were ‘executed with unprecedented boldness … Roberts was not so much depicting the objective being of the landscape, as expressing his subjective reaction to it. He translated his external delight into sensuously handled paint.’3 The chromatic brilliance of harbourside Sydney is also a primary focus of this view. A study of sea and sky, the picture is divided into two broad horizontal bands, the pale blue of the sky, broken up with occasional white clouds, reflected in the vivid blue of the calm water below. Helen Topliss has identified the area seen across the open water as Kirribilli Point, and the distinctive multi-storey building on the left hand side appears to be the Pastoral Finance Association Wool Store, which was constructed in 1892 adjacent to the grounds of Admiralty House, the long roof of which can be seen to the right.4 The seven storey PFA warehouse was reportedly ‘one of the most conspicuous [buildings] on the harbour front’5 and when it burned down in December 1921 along with the 30,000 bales of wool it housed, provided ‘a magnificent spectacle … for the thousands of ferry passengers … who watched the devastating progress of the fire’.6 The industry that characterised much of harbourside Sydney during the late nineteenth century is highlighted by the nearby tug boat, a short white wake describing its slow and steady path. The most prominent man-made element of the scene is the elegant four-masted schooner to the right, which directs the view into the distance beyond Kirribilli Point towards Bradleys Head, with Fort Denison visible in between. Topliss highlights the variety in Roberts’ painting technique, pointing out that the lines on the side of the vessel are incised with the end of a paint brush.7 The textured sky too, exemplifies his lively brushwork. Roberts had been resident in Sydney since 1891, when he arrived from Melbourne by ship with Arthur Streeton, and took up residence at Curlew Camp on Little Sirius Cove. Living at the beachside campsite on and off until his marriage five years later, Roberts had constant access to the water and Kirribilli Point, thought to have been painted during the mid-1890s, reflects his intimate knowledge of the myriad moods and colours of the harbour. 1. Nancy Elmhurst Goode quoted in Whitelaw, B., ‘’Plein Air’ Painting: The Early Artists’ Camps Around Melbourne’ in Clark, J. and Whitelaw, B., Golden Summers: Heidelberg and Beyond, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1985, p. 55 2. Tom Roberts, Holiday Sketch at Coogee, 1888 (Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Charles Conder, Coogee Bay, 1888 (National Gallery of Victoria). See Eagle, M., ‘Friendly Rivalry: Paintings of Waterside Sydney, 1888 and 1890’ in Lane, T., Australian Impressionism, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, pp. 103 – 108 3. Spate, V., Tom Roberts, Lansdowne Editions, East Melbourne, 1978, p. 52 4. Topliss, H., Tom Roberts 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, cat. 284, p. 152. Topliss notes ‘the building on the left is Dalgetty’s [sic.] woolshed, which burned down in 1926’, however research suggests that the wool store was owned by the Pastoral Finance Association and burned down in 1921. See ‘The Leading Wool Selling Houses of Sydney’, The Sydney Wool and Stock Journal, 9 May 1902, p. 7; ‘The Great Sydney Fire: Destruction of the P.F.A. Stores’, Sydney Mail, 21 December 1921, p. 5 and ‘Kirribilli’s Great Fire’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 1954, p. 7. 5. Sydney Mail, ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. Topliss, vol. 1, op. cit., p. 152 KIRSTY GRANT
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) WINTER, ENGLAND, c.1920 oil on canvas on plywood 43.5 x 34.5 cm signed lower left: Tom Roberts bears framer’s label verso: Dicksee & Co., Bradford, 1911 PROVENANCE Mr and Mrs Oswald Syme, Melbourne, 1920 Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne Christie’s, Melbourne, 28 April 1992, lot 159 (as ‘Autumn, England’) Company collection, Sydney Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Possibly: Souvenir Exhibition of Paintings by Tom Roberts, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 1920, cat. 11 (as ‘Ham Common’) Tom Roberts: Retrospective, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 4 October – 17 November 1996; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 29 November 1996 – 27 January 1997; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 11 February – 6 April 1997; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 18 April – 1 June 1997; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 11 June – 27 July 1997, cat. 74 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Topliss, H., Tom Roberts 1856 – 1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, cat. 512, vol. I, p. 197; vol. II, pl. 209 (illus., as ‘Autumn, England’) Radford, R., Tom Roberts: Retrospective, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1996, p. 213 (illus., as ‘Autumn, England’) RELATED WORK The Copse in Winter, c.1910, oil on canvas on plywood, 33.5 x 43.5 cm, private collection, illus., in Gray, A., Tom Roberts, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 2015, cat. 109, pp. 276, 277 ESSAY By August 1909, Tom Roberts and his family had moved to the London suburb of Hampstead Garden, within easy reach of Hampstead Heath and all the landscape opportunities it offered. Winter, England, c.1911 appears to be one so inspired. This is supported by other paintings related in subject, style and date, particularly The Copse in Winter, c.1910 (private collection). In her catalogue book to the National Gallery of Australia’s Tom Roberts exhibition of 2015, Anne Gray comments on its ‘bare skeletons of trees scoring the cloudy blue sky’ and the ‘whispery atmosphere, suggesting perhaps a touch of wind among the stiffened branches’.1 Open skies dominate The Copse in Winter, whereas Winter, England is enclosed, dominated by grey trees, pale yellows and blues. Yet, both paintings are filled with the atmosphere of winter, sharing cool sunlight and skeletal branches of trees stripped of their leaves. Moreover, a framer’s label on the verso of Winter, England, c.1911 carries both Robert’s new address, ‘Bigwood Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb’ and the date ‘1911’. Further support for the identification of Winter, England as a Hampstead Heath subject comes from the Roberts’ scholars Virginia Spate and Helen Topliss. Topliss, in her catalogue raisonné of Roberts works, lists our painting, (catalogue number 512), as Autumn England of c.1920. She also noted that Spate suggested it was ‘Supposedly purchased by the original owner at the Athenaeum in 1920 – the present title probably given to it by the owners as it doesn’t correspond with anything in the catalogue of 1920.’ She added: ‘It could possibly be Ham Common, No. 11’.2 Harrow on the Hill, c.1910-12 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) is another significant work related to this engaging group of English landscapes. Here, Anne Gray noted the influence of John Constable, renowned for his views of Hampstead, adding ‘it is possible that Constable’s Hampstead landscapes and cloud studies inspired Roberts to paint this view’.3 For Roberts, the previous years had been a time of renewal and enrichment. From the vast Turneresque skies and seas of Storm at Sea, 1907 and the Whistlerian tones and mists of Thames Barges, c.1909 (both in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales), together with Constable’s arching heavens of Harrow on the Hill, c.1910-12, Roberts developed his distinctive English style of painting. Roberts’ Australian and English landscapes show a great love of trees, honouring their nobility and exploiting their compositional value. This is reflected in many paintings, especially in titles such as Joy o’ Gums c.1920s and A Queen of Gums, 1926 (private collection). Trunks upright, often close to the picture plane, as in Winter, England, c.1911, dominate. The classic balance between vertical and horizontal was a feature of Roberts’ work from Bailed Up, 1895-1927 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney), through Winter, England, c.1911, to Sherbrooke Forest, 1924 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). Although dubbed ‘the father of Australian landscape painting’,4 Roberts spent a large part of his creative life in England, the country of his birth. Sharing his lifetime and artistic achievements between England and Australia, each greatly enriched the other. 1. Gray, A., Tom Roberts, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 2015, p. 276 2. Quoted in Topliss, H., op. cit., p. 197, cat. 512. See under ‘Literature’ for details of the 1920 catalogue. 3. Gray, A., op. cit., p. 279 4. Croll, R.H., Tom Roberts: Father of Australian Landscape Painting, Robertson & Mullens, Melbourne, 1935 DAVID THOMAS
TOM ROBERTS (1856 - 1931) SUMMER AFTERNOON, c.1919 oil on cedar panel 20.5 x 12.0 cm signed lower left: Tom Roberts PROVENANCE Miss Emily M. Giddy, Melbourne Thence by descent Mrs H.W. Giddy, Melbourne Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Jack Manton, Queensland Thence by descent Jennifer Manton, Sydney Estate of the above, Sydney EXHIBITED possibly Catalogue of Paintings (English and Australian) by Tom Roberts, Anthony Hordern & Sons Ltd, Sydney, 16 August 1920, cat. 26 Winter Exhibitions 1976, Recent Acquisitions, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 18 June 1976, cat. 19 (as ‘A lady and gentleman seated under an umbrella on the esplanade, c.1920’, illus. in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE Spate, V., ‘Tom Roberts’ Catalogue’, in Tom Roberts and Australian Impressionism, 1869 to 1903’, MA thesis, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1962, cat. 446 (as ‘Two Women Seated in Conversation’) Topliss, H., Tom Roberts, 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. I, p. 193, cat. 484 (as ‘Untitled. A Lady and a Gentleman Seated Under an Umbrella, c.1919’); vol. II, pl. 202 (illus.) ESSAY Summer Afternoon, c.1919, is of one of the most individual works in Tom Roberts’ oeuvre. It is also one of the most elusive. In the past, it has resisted identification. Virginia Spate, in her 1962 pioneering study of Roberts, possibly gave it the title ‘Two Women Seated in Conversation’. The model for the woman she said was Roberts’ friend Emily Giddy, sister of Sir Harold Giddy.1 In her catalogue raisonné of 1985, Helen Topliss listed it as ‘Untitled. A Lady and a Gentleman Seated Under an Umbrella’.2 Our title of ‘Summer Afternoon’ is taken from the painting of the same size Roberts exhibited in 1920 at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Hall in March and Anthony Hordern & Sons, Sydney in August.3 Further, it is known that Roberts was painting landscapes in Cornwall during the spring of 1919,4 although the painting offers no clue to its location. The seasons had a special appeal for Roberts, particularly the sunny ones. This is apparent in the early paintings of the bushlands and beaches of Melbourne and Sydney. Significant early examples include A Summer Morning Tiff, 1886 (Art Gallery of Ballarat), painted at Houston’s farm, Box Hill, and the sparkling Holiday Sketch at Coogee, 1888 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) painted in company with Charles Conder during an Easter visit to Coogee. Returning to England in 1903, Roberts quickly came to terms with the engaging atmospheric and cultural differences, witnessed in such works of Whistlerian subtlety as The Towpath, Putney, c.1904 (Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth) and Putney Bridge, London, c.1905 (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, M.J.M. Carter Collection). Later there are warmer days, as in Springtime in Sussex, 1921 (Art Gallery of New South Wales), described by Anne Gray, as ‘quintessentially English’.5 Our painting, Summer Afternoon, c.1919, is of quite a different kind, although its roots derive from that past. The enigmatic can be found in the Venetian Woman on a Balcony, 1884 (private collection), and the chic woman seated out-of-doors in Lady with a Parasol, c.1889 (sold by Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 30 August 2017, lot 11). To each, with the wonderful atmosphere that comes from having been painted en plein air, Roberts adds characteristic individual subtleties of light and colour. Summer Afternoon has an intriguing anonymity. The two figures, seen from the side, turn their faces away from the viewer, the anonymity of the couple extended to the unidentified location. Absence of narrative heightens curiosity. At midday, when life stands still in startling clarity, Roberts evokes feelings of tantalising expectancy, the brevity of the noonday shadows countered by the imaginative shade cast by the umbrella. Bathed in the bright, white light of a summer’s day, the beach chair and its occupant are the most clearly defined features - the cast iron work nearby providing a touch of decorative invention. By translating actuality into poetic invention, Summer Afternoon, c.1919 is filled with creativity and individuality. Overflowing with enveloping atmosphere and lively brushstrokes, the restricted palette is masterfully handled. 1. See Topliss, H., Tom Roberts, 1856-1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. 1, p. 193, and Spate, V., ‘Tom Roberts’ Catalogue’, in Tom Roberts and Australian Impressionism, 1869 to 1903’, MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 1962, cat. 446. 2. Emily Giddy also sat for Roberts’ portrait, The Elusive Louisa, c. 1910-14, (Topliss, H., ibid., cat. 427), once in the famed Jack Manton collection of Heidelberg School artists. 3. Exhibition of Paintings by Tom Roberts, Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne, 30 March – 17 April 1920, cat. 67, and Tom Roberts, Anthony Hordern & Sons, Sydney 16 August 1920, cat. 26 4. Topliss, H., op. cit., vol. 1, p. 76 5. Gray , A. , Tom Roberts, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2015, p. 291 DAVID THOMAS
