陽光の南

Tom Roberts painted this in the summer of 1886 into 1887, at Ricketts Point on the bay south of Melbourne, where he and a group of young painters camped and worked outdoors. The three naked figures wading into the water are his own friends and fellow painters, among them Arthur Streeton and Frederick McCubbin, stripped off on a hot day. Roberts had trained in Europe and come home wanting to paint Australia in its own harsh, bright light. The circle he gathered became known as the Heidelberg School, after a village outside Melbourne where they often worked. He first showed this canvas in March 1887, under the title it still carries today.