The work of Tom Roberts in the context of formation Australia's national art school

Tom Roberts is one of the key figures in the visual arts in Australia in the late XIX and early XX centuries. As a brilliant and versatile painter, he was also intimately involved as a practitioner, theorist, and social activist in the founding of Australia's artistic institutions. The article examines for the first time the role of the artist's personality in the formation of the Australian national school of art, investigates the evolution of his creative method, and reveals characteristic features of his pictorial style. Particular attention is given to aspects of the influence of Naturalism and Impressionism on Tom Roberts's work, and the significance of his works in the founding of national art collections in Australia. It is emphasized that the artist's work, reflecting local traditions and specifics of everyday life, marked the beginning of a whole direction in Australian painting, different from the metropolis and focused on the transmission of the Australian spirit in art.