List of paintings by Tom Roberts

This is an incomplete list of the paintings by the Australian painter Tom Roberts. Roberts was active between 1883 and his death in 1931. He was a prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian Impressionism.^[1]

As a child, Roberts migrated from England to Australia in 1869, settling in Melbourne. He studied art under Louis Buvelot and returned to England in 1881 for three years's art study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 to 1884. In Europe he was influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. In 1883 he met the Spanish artists Lorreano Barrau and Ramon Casas in Granada, reinforcing the principles of impressionism and plein air painting.^[2]

Between 1885 and 1892, Roberts was based in Melbourne where he made his living as a portraitist while playing a key role in establishing the en plein air artist's camps that led to the Heidelberg School. Roberts was also a driving figure in the famous 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition in Melbourne in 1889, contributing 62 works.^[1]

Roberts relocated to Sydney in 1890 and continued to paint in artists' camps. During this period, Roberts painted a series of works consciously attempting to frame a uniquely Australian identity, including Shearing the Rams (1890), A break away! (1891) and Bailed up.^[3]

In 1901 Roberts was commissioned to paint the opening of the first Parliament of the newly federated Australia; resulting in the monumental Big Picture (1903). The mental and physical strain involved in its creation weakened his eyesight, lead to depression, and is generally seen as a turning point in his career after which his work never again reached the same heights.^[4] Roberts travelled to the United Kingdom to complete the work and stayed there until 1914, when he returned to Melbourne. He died in Melbourne in 1931.^[2]

Helen Topliss published a two-volume catalogue raisonné of Roberts' works in 1985.^[5]