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Tom Roberts was born at Dorchester, England.
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He attended night classes at the Artisans's School of Design, Collingwood, where he was awarded the prize for lanscape.
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Tom Roberts enrolled at the Melbourne National Gallery School, where he made friends with Frederick McCubbin, C.D.Richardson and Louis Abrahams.
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He sailed on s.s. Garonne and when he reacher London, enrolled in the Royal Academy Antique Schools.
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In the summer, Roberts and John Peter Russell went of a walking tour of Spain, where they met young Spanish painters which they discussed and exchanged ideas of impressionist art.
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Roberts travelled to Italy and France. In the same year, Roberts decided to return home to Melbourne.
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With McCubbin and Abrahams, the first of many famous artist's camps was established at Box Hill.
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Roberts met again a former art-student Elizabeth (Lillie) Williamson and married her on 30 April 1896 at St Hilary's Church, East Kew, Melbourne. They settled at Balmain, Sydney, and had one son Caleb, born in 1898.
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In 1900, upon the federation of the Australian states, Roberts was approached and asked to build upon this symbol of nation identity by painting Opening of the First Parliament
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He died in 1931 of cancer in Kallista near Melbourne
