The defining image of Australian pastoral labour, painted from studies made inside a working woolshed.
Artist
Tom Roberts
Date
1890
Medium
Oil on canvas on composition board
Dimensions
122.4 × 183.3 cm
Location
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
History
What the record shows
Roberts worked at Brocklesby Station near Corowa in New South Wales across two shearing seasons, drawing directly in the shed.
The painting was criticised on first exhibition for its unheroic subject before becoming a national emblem of the Heidelberg School.
It was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1932 and remains one of the most requested Australian loans, with movements handled under climate-controlled domestic transport.
Provenance
Chain of ownership
01Purchased by Edward Trenchard, Sydney, 1890
02Private collections, Melbourne
03Felton Bequest, National Gallery of Victoria, 1932
