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Artist or Maker: THOMAS WILLIAM ROBERTS (1856-1931)

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Provenance: R J McKellar
Dr J V Duhig
C Davis
Anonymous sale, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, May 1981, lot 90
Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
Acquired from the above by the present owners

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Literature: H Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856-1931, A Catalogue Raisonné, Melbourne, 1985, Vol. I, no. 133, p. 110, Vol II, illus. pl. 61 (133)

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Notes: "It is true that Roberts was probably the most influential figure in the development of open-air Australian impressionist landscape painting the movement which in the 1880s so effectively captured typical Australian light, the bush, and the beach." (R Radford Tom Roberts, Adelaide, 1996.p.10)

In essence Tom Roberts was part of a group who at the time that were developing a uniquely Australian way of seeing. He was concerned with simplicity; he and his fellow Heidelberg painters were devotees of 'natural vision', which is best defined as a desire to relay a down-to-earth view of the familiar. Following a number of years in Europe Roberts returned to Australia with a desire to convey the tenets of realism in his depictions of local life and landscape. His early works reflected an intimate style that he had initiated in Britain, there is an enclosed feeling to these paintings, framed and limited in their outlook. By the time Figures in a Landscape was painted the artist was becoming increasingly confident with his vision and how to depict his view of Australia, he began to paint its wider spaces. "He chose scenes with open foregrounds and discarded the dark planes at the sides of the painting which were traditionally used to channel the movement of the eye. The eye could thus move freely over the light filled surface as it would move freely over the luminous space which Roberts depictedIt shows that his perception of the characteristic local light and terrain was already keen."(V Spate Tom Roberts, Melbourne, 1972.p.38)

Interestingly Figures in a Landscape illustrates Roberts desire to show what interested Australians at the time and not just a view of the natural landscape. This work depicts a trio relaxing at the beach, a subject that Roberts was to return to time and time again. He was greatly influenced by the laconic and easy going way of life in Australia and had a true affinity for its populace. The beach, and all the ways in which it could be viewed as exemplifying a microcosm of the Australian life, remains until today a source of great inspiration to many Australian artists. "The growth of the descriptive in his landscapes was contemporary with the growth of his interest in imaginative painting. The balance between observation and abstraction which he had so finely kept in his bets works may have been upset by this artistic tendency which was alien to his most significant ability; that of communicating delight in visual reality." (ibid, p.71)

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