The Visual Revolution of Tom Roberts: Father of Australian Impressionism

I have admired impressionist painters since my early school days. I remember seeing Sheering the Rams and Tom Robert's landscapes, and they shaped my perception of rural Australia and the romance of cultural icons.

After training in Europe and absorbing the techniques of the French Impressionists, Tom Roberts returned to Australia with a revolutionary idea: Australian light deserved to be captured directly, honestly, and on location. This was radical in an era when most colonial artists worked in studios, often painting landscapes that looked very European.
Roberts understood that the brilliant sunlight, the distinctive blue haze of eucalyptus-misty air, and the vast horizontal spaces weren’t problems to be solved—they were the very essence of what made Australian scenery unique and demanded a new visual language.

So when Roberts set up his easel in the harsh Australian sunlight of the 1880s, he fundamentally transformed how Australians saw their own landscape! Nearly 150 years later, his influence continues to shape how the nation represents itself visually. This was the birth of the Australian plein air movement and impressionism. 

Have you heard about the Heidelberg School revolution?

It was an exciting time in Australian art history as it was crucial in shaping how we saw Australia. Together with Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, and Charles Conder, Roberts established the Heidelberg School, named after their painting camps in the bush near Melbourne. These artists packed up their portable equipment and spent weeks outdoors, working quickly to capture changing light and atmospheric conditions.

These moments shaped generations of Australian self-understanding, capturing something true about Australia while simultaneously creating the very idea of what that truth might be.

This revolutionary new vision was a gamble! Australian art had little market value. 
They wagered their time, reputations, and resources on developing a new visual genre that had no precedent and uncertain commercial prospects. They created and established what amounted to a new cultural currency—an authentic way of seeing and depicting Australia. Their gamble paid off spectacularly. The visual vocabulary they developed became foundational to the Australian identity. Today, their paintings command record prices at auction, but their true value transcends economics—they created an enigmatic foundation for how the nation sees itself.

So how does this all relate to me sitting outside painting? Well glad you asked!

Roberts’ most significant legacy was legitimising plein air painting as a serious artistic practice in Australia. He and his colleagues proved it was the only way to truly capture the unique qualities of Australian light and atmosphere. Roberts advocated for portable equipment, faster techniques, and looser brushwork that could capture fleeting effects of light, demonstrating that the spontaneity inherent in outdoor work brought energy and authenticity that studio work often lacked.

So when you step into the great outdoors with pencils or paintbrush poised, remember our friend Tom, who stepped out before us, creating a visual grammar that we can still draw upon, speak to, or challenge ourselves with, but rarely do we escape his legacy to us.  

See you on the mountain.

Judith Rose

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