Australian Literature Week 4
b) Write a detailed description of the painting you enjoyed most.
I admit first to being a bit of a history nerd
I think that's why works like Tom Roberts' "Bailed Up" appeal to me. I felt that this work had a sense of history embedded in it. I like the way the bush rangers are depicted as the main participants in the image. I felt this subverted the way they are traditionally seen in history. Rather than being seen as mere criminals, they are elevated to being real people whose character became a legendary part of the Australian bush culture. I felt that Roberts' depiction captured a sense of the place of the bush ranger in Australian society that the many depictions of Ned Kelly could not. I thought it interesting that Roberts chose a location that was not on a coaching route but a spot chosen for its ability to depict the isolation of the bush at this point in Australian history. As well as capturing something of the bush rangers, I feel that the figures have been arranged in the landscape to depict the victims' sense of being trapped. In a way, all the participants in this image are trapped - by the steep mountains behind them, by the armed men on horses that supervise the robbery, by the coach, by the fallen trees, by a desperation so great that it eventuated in Australia's earliest armed robberies. I found it interesting that Roberts sought to represent something of the bushranging era as much as he sought to show something of what it might have been like to be a policeman at this point in Australian history. The image gives the impression of isolation so thorough that the victims are helpless. The bush rangers have created a mini hostage situation where no officer could have infiltrated, particularly as he probably would have been a sole officer in such a rural location.
I also found this image interesting because it was much more illuminated than many other early Australian images. Particularly around the coach itself, the light acts almost as a spotlight on what is occuring and on the characters represented there.
Roberts moved the canvas to a studio to paint the coach and horses, but the figures and landscape were painted on location. I thought it both interesting and fitting that Roberts categorised the people depicted as part of the natural landscape rather than part of the imposed landscape (like horses, coaches). This probably contributed to his ability to depict the character and emotions of these people by seeing them in relation to the enormity and power of the local landscape.
Tom Roberts
Bailed Up
1895
Oil on canvas
I admit first to being a bit of a history nerd
I think that's why works like Tom Roberts' "Bailed Up" appeal to me. I felt that this work had a sense of history embedded in it. I like the way the bush rangers are depicted as the main participants in the image. I felt this subverted the way they are traditionally seen in history. Rather than being seen as mere criminals, they are elevated to being real people whose character became a legendary part of the Australian bush culture. I felt that Roberts' depiction captured a sense of the place of the bush ranger in Australian society that the many depictions of Ned Kelly could not. I thought it interesting that Roberts chose a location that was not on a coaching route but a spot chosen for its ability to depict the isolation of the bush at this point in Australian history. As well as capturing something of the bush rangers, I feel that the figures have been arranged in the landscape to depict the victims' sense of being trapped. In a way, all the participants in this image are trapped - by the steep mountains behind them, by the armed men on horses that supervise the robbery, by the coach, by the fallen trees, by a desperation so great that it eventuated in Australia's earliest armed robberies. I found it interesting that Roberts sought to represent something of the bushranging era as much as he sought to show something of what it might have been like to be a policeman at this point in Australian history. The image gives the impression of isolation so thorough that the victims are helpless. The bush rangers have created a mini hostage situation where no officer could have infiltrated, particularly as he probably would have been a sole officer in such a rural location.
I also found this image interesting because it was much more illuminated than many other early Australian images. Particularly around the coach itself, the light acts almost as a spotlight on what is occuring and on the characters represented there.
Roberts moved the canvas to a studio to paint the coach and horses, but the figures and landscape were painted on location. I thought it both interesting and fitting that Roberts categorised the people depicted as part of the natural landscape rather than part of the imposed landscape (like horses, coaches). This probably contributed to his ability to depict the character and emotions of these people by seeing them in relation to the enormity and power of the local landscape.
Tom Roberts
Bailed Up
1895
Oil on canvas