Tom Roberts

by Julie Cotter

Dr Julie Cotter of Monash University has provided a richly detailed account of the career of Heidelberg School artist Tom Roberts that focuses on his enormous range of portrait studies. Identities portrayed include famous figures in the society and politics of the late 19th century as well as very early significant portraits of Indigenous people.Copiously illustrated with hundreds of images covering almost the artist's entire oeuvre of portrait paintings, with fine photography provided by many of Australia's leading galleries and collections, this splendidly researched publication will add new insights and information into the scholarship already developed around this important figure in Australian art history. His grand painting of the ceremony proclaiming Australia's Federation in 1901, in the Queen's Collection, forms a powerful conclusion to the book.