17 Facts About Tom Roberts

Thomas William Roberts was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, known as Australian impressionism.

Tom Roberts migrated with his family to Australia in 1869 to live with relatives.

Tom Roberts decided to further his art studies, and returned to England for three years of full-time art study at the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 to 1884.

Tom Roberts traveled in Spain in 1883 with Australian artist John Russell and future politician William Maloney, where he met Spanish artists Laureano Barrau and Ramon Casas, who introduced him to the principles of impressionism and plein air painting.

Streeton became a frequent visitor to the artists' camps and a protege of Tom Roberts, who taught him impressionistic techniques.

From 1888, Tom Roberts rented a studio in Grosvenor Chambers, at 9 Collins Street, Melbourne's first purpose-built complex of art studios.

At Grosvenor Chambers, Tom Roberts became one of Melbourne's most fashionable portraitists.

Tom Roberts was the main exhibitor with 63 "impressions", followed by Conder and Streeton.

Tom Roberts spent World War I in England assisting at a hospital.

Elizabeth died in January 1928, and Tom Roberts remarried, to Jean Boyes, in August 1928.

Tom Roberts's ashes are buried in the churchyard at Illawarra near Longford, Tasmania, one of his favourite painting spots.

Tom Roberts painted a considerable number of fine oil landscapes and portraits, some painted at artist camps with his friend McCubbin.

Many of Tom Roberts' paintings were landscapes or ideas done on small canvases that he did very quickly, such as his show at the famous 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition in Melbourne, "9 by 5" referring to the size in inches of the cigar box lids on which most of the paintings were done.

Tom Roberts had more works on display in this exhibition than anyone else.

In 1888 Tom Roberts met Conder in Sydney and they painted together at Coogee beach.

Tom Roberts' life was dramatised in the 1985 Australian mini series One Summer Again.

Tom Roberts was one of four Australian artists whose paintings featured in the Australia's Impressionists exhibition at the National Gallery, London, which ran from December 2016 to March 2017; it was described as 'the first UK exhibition of its kind'.