Charcoal burners

Charcoal burners (previously known as Wood splitters) is a 1886 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts.[1] The painting depicts three rural labourers "splitting and stacking timber for the preparation of charcoal".[1] Roberts, influenced by the Barbizon school and Jules Bastien-Lepage, would later return to the theme of rural men working in his works A break away! and Shearing the Rams.[1]

Charcoal burners
ArtistTom Roberts
Year1886
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions61.4 cm × 92.3 cm (24.2 in × 36.3 in)
LocationArt Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat

Roberts painted the picture from sketches made at a camp he made with Frederick McCubbin at Box Hill, then a rural locality east of Melbourne.[1]

The painting was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 1961.[1]

The work was stolen from the gallery in 1978. A ransom was paid the following year for the safe recovery of the painting from a park in Sydney.[2]

References
  1. "Tom Roberts: Wood splitters". Australian collection. Art Gallery of Ballarat. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  2. Cansdale, Dominic (1 June 2021). "How Wood Splitters art heist from Ballarat helped change regional art galleries forever". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 1 June 2021.


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