Shearing the Rams
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About Shearing the Rams
Step inside and the shed feels hot before you have read a single fact about it.
Workers bend over heavy sheep. Arms pull, shears move, fleece falls, and helpers carry the wool away. Sunlight breaks through in narrow patches, catching dust in the air and turning pale curls of wool bright against the darker room.
Tom Roberts knew the scene from a real shearing shed at Brocklesby Station in New South Wales. He sketched there in 1888 and returned during later shearing seasons. When the shed was empty, he even asked two young helpers to kick up dust so he could study the atmosphere.
No single person fills the painting. The energy comes from many jobs happening at once, each pair of hands passing work to the next.
It is skilled, exhausting human labor—but the sheep are part of the story too. The whole room depends on bodies: pushing, holding, bending, waiting, and trying to keep up.
Artwork details
- Artist
- Tom Roberts
- Date
- 1890
- Medium
- Oil on canvas on composition board
- Dimensions
- 122.4 × 183.3 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Victoria
- Accession number
- 4654-3
Sources & rights
Tom Roberts, Shearing the Rams, 1890. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 4654-3. Image via Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project), Public Domain.
