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''Shearing the Rams'' is an 1890 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts. The painting depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed. Distinctly Australian in character, the painting is a celebration of pastoral life and work, especially "strong, masculine labour" and recognises the role that wool-growing played in the development of the country. One of the most well known and loved paintings in Australia, ''Shearing the Rams'' has been described as a "masterpiece of Australian impressionism" and "the great icon of Australian popular art history".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tom Roberts’ masterpiece ~ Shearing the Rams 1890 )〕 The painting is part of the National Gallery of Victoria Australian art collection. ==Composition== Roberts modelled his painting on a shearing shed at what is now called "Killeneen", an outstation of the "Brocklesby" sheep station, near Corowa in the Riverina region of New South Wales. The property was owned by the Anderson family, distant relations to Roberts, who first visited the station in 1886 to attend a family wedding. Having decided on shearing as the subject for a painting, Roberts arrived at Brocklesby in the spring of 1888, making around 70 preliminary sketches. The following shearing season, he returned to the station with his canvas. Roberts' work was noted by the local press with reports of him "dressed in blue shirt and moleskins ... giving the last finishing touches to a picture in oils about 5ft by 4ft."〔 Art historians had previously thought Roberts completed most of the painting in his studio, using the sketches drawn in his time at Brocklesby.〔 In 2003 however, art critic and historian Paul Johnson wrote: "Tom Roberts spent two years, on the spot, painting ''Shearing the Rams''".〔Johnson, Paul (2003). ''Art. A New History'', p. 579. Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 0-297-82928-9〕 New evidence was brought to light in 2006 that suggested that Roberts painted much of the work ''en plein air'' at the shearing shed itself.〔 In 2006, The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) conducted a scientific examination of paint left on a piece of timber salvaged from the now-destroyed shed, where it was thought that Roberts cleaned his brushes. The study confirmed that the paint, in a number of different shades, precisely matched the paint used in the painting. The senior curator of art at the NGV, Terence Lane, believes this is strong evidence that much of the work was done on location, "For me, that's evidence of a lot of time spent in that woolshed ... all those paint marks and the selection of colours indicates he spent so much time ''en plein air''".〔 In a seeming anachronism, the painting shows sheep being shorn with blade shears rather than the machine shears which started to enter Australian shearing sheds in the late 1880s. The young man carrying the fleece on the left of the painting alludes to the figure of Esau in Ghiberti's ''Gates of Paradise'' at the Florence Baptistry.〔 The model for the tar-boy, a smiling figure in the centre of the picture was actually a girl, Susan Davis, who lived until 1979. She also assisted Roberts by kicking up dust in the shed to allow him to capture some of the atmosphere.〔 An x-ray study of the painting in 2007, taken while the painting was being cleaned, unveiled Roberts' original sketch of the central shearer. In that original sketch, the shearer was lacking a beard and was more upright; the change to a stooping figure makes the shearer appear more in control of the sheep, improving his role as the painting's focus.〔 John Thallon, a Melbourne frame-maker, provided the frame for many of Roberts' paintings, including this one. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shearing the Rams」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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