Tom Roberts is quoted in the Argus in 1890 as saying Title Shearing the rams Creator Tom Roberts Creator Lifespan 09 March 1856 - 14 September 1931 Creator Nationality English Creator Gender Male Creator Death Place Kallista, Victoria Creator Birth Place Dorchester, Dorset, England Date Created 1890 Location Created Corowa, New South Wales; Melbourne, Victoria , Australia Physical Dimensions 122.4 x 183.3 cm (Unframed) Type Paintings Rights National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Felton Bequest, 1932, =A9 National Gallery of Victoria Medium oil on canvas on composition board Provenance Purchased from the artist by Edward Trenchard (1848¨C1927), of Edward Trenchard & Co., Queen Street, Melbourne, from July 1890; by descent to C. W. Trenchard, until 1932; from whom purchased for the Felton Bequest, 1932. Place Part Of Australia Additional information Roberts started work on this painting at Brocklesby Station, near Corowa, in the spring of 1888. It was in progress while he was painting his portraits of Melbourne society, pioneering a new Australian landscape, and masterminding The 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition. Often hailed as a masterpiece of Australian impressionism, it is, in fact, one of Roberts¡¯ most academic paintings, painstakingly composed, with over seventy preparatory drawings and many pentimenti ¨C the angle of the ringer¡¯s left leg, for example, was changed from a vertical to a diagonal. There are many references, too, in the composition and individual figures, to classical and Renaissance art ¨C the pose of the boy on the left, for example, was borrowed from the figure of Esau in Ghiberti¡¯s Florence Baptistry doors. In 1888 the Australian colonies celebrated the centenary of European settlement at Sydney Cove. Roberts was one of the first artists who sought to mark the occasion by painting grand images of Australian life ¨C Australian history paintings. With McCubbin, Streeton and others, he gave visual expression to the nascent nationalism of the day.
