Tom Roberts: Perspectives on a Canadian Artist

Kathy E. Zimon is Fine Arts Librarian (Emerita) of the University of
Calgary and the author of Alberta Society of Artists: The First 70
Years.

At the tender age of eight, Tom Roberts (1909–98) knew he wanted to be
an artist. As a teenager, he worked at part-time jobs to pay for evening
art classes with teachers like Fred Haines, Yvonne McKague, and Franz
Johnston at the Ontario College of Art. Before graduating from high
school, he already shared a studio with a friend, and had a painting
accepted in an open show of the Ontario Society of Artists, a precocious
accomplishment that persuaded him to study art full time. And it was at
art school that he resolved never to have a “proper job,” but rather
to make his living as an artist. Throughout the Depression and the war
years, he kept that resolution, supplementing the income from his
painting by designing greeting cards and teaching art at summer camps.
Finally, during the 1960s and 1970s, sales of his work began to justify
his unwavering determination to pursue the life of an artist. During an
uneventful and seemingly contented life, he devoted himself to painting
the Canadian landscape in his preferred media of oil, watercolor, and
acrylic. When he died at age 89, a respected member of both the OSA and
the Royal Canadian Academy, his serene Group of Seven- and
Impressionist-influenced works graced numerous public and private
collections across Canada.

This biography by his younger daughter, Celia Roberts, is above all an
affectionate tribute to a father who is remembered as a dedicated
artist. Rather than a scholarly account, it is a detailed family history
seen primarily from a domestic perspective. Despite the detail, complex
relationships with parents (owners of the Roberts Gallery in Toronto)
and an older brother (who inherited the family business) are glossed
over. Facts and incidents are carefully recorded, yet the personality of
the artist whose paintings the Canadian public found so appealing
remains elusive. Libraries and collectors should buy this attractive,
well-illustrated book, if only for the excellent color plates; the
pictures are as telling as the text.