Grosvenor Chambers
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Grosvenor Chambers, at number 9 Collins Street, Melbourne, contained the first custom-built complex of artists' studios in Australia.
CB Walker Studio, Grosvenor Chambers, Melbourne, 1888-1899. Saw-tooth skylights visible at roof level. Albumen print 23.9 x 19.7 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales
Bernard Hall (c.1926) The studio party, oil on canvas, 147.5 × 117.0 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, showing the interior of a Grosvenor Chambers studio
Unknown photographer (c.1890) Tom Roberts (seated) in his studio at Grosvenor Chambers with Arthur Streeton
Shearing the Rams
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Shearing the Rams is an 1890 painting by Australian artist Tom Roberts. It 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 the wool industry played in the development of the country.
One of at least seventy sketches Robert made in preparation for Shearing the Rams
The "smiling tarboy" at the center of the painting was modelled on local girl Susan Bourne, then 9 years old.
Photograph of a shearing shed outside Melbourne, taken by Charles Nettleton, c. 1880