Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Mrs Fanny Burchill , sister-in-law of the artist
Ms Hilda J Burchill, gifted from the above in 1936, letter attached verso
Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1970

EXHIBITED
Recent Acquisitions: Winter 1970, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 17 June – 2 July 1970, cat. 17 (illus.)

LITERATURE
Virginia Spate, Tom Roberts and Australian Impressionism, 1869 to 1903, MA Thesis, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1962, vol. 2, p. 35, cat. 96.
Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856–1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, vol. 1, p. 117, cat. 160; vol. 2, pl. 75 (illus.)


Every now and then, Tom Roberts turned his attention to painting informal portraits of children. He portrays them in typical poses of reading, sleeping or, as in the case of this work, a gradual awakening.

The title of Study of a Little Girl Asleep in a Hammock is confirmed by both Virginia Spate and Helen Topliss, but there lies the quandary. The girl is not asleep but very wide awake, playing on the notion of the child who reports that they are asleep to parents who ask! The work is a portrait of Sylvia Purves, daughter of Alice (Roberts's sister) and Thomas Purves, the suited insurance manager depicted in a 1900 portrait by Roberts in the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.

Sylvia was born in 1888 which makes her about three years of age when this study was painted. It came into the possession of Fanny Burchill - the widow of Dick Roberts (Tom's brother) who subsequently gave it to Hilda Burchill, her niece. Hilda was also a granddaughter of Alexander Anderson, former owner of Brocklesby Station, the site for the painting of Shearing the rams. Alice and family may have visited Roberts while he laboured over his shearing picture, providing some light relief. It would account for the portrait remaining with Roberts who, subsequently, left it with the Andersons, not an unusual act of generosity on his part, Spate viewing the portrait while it was owned by the Anderson family.

Roberts intermittently recorded his observations of children either in sketchbooks or as small studies; a cigar box employed for the portrayal of William Hay's granddaughter amongst many. While biographer Humphrey McQueen surmises that Roberts's reflections are a yearning for fatherhood, he was also interested in the notion of childhood. He often kept his studies for reference rather than relinquish them as gifts for the parent.

Roberts's portraits of children owe their inherent interest to the meticulous nature of his studies. This is evident in the National Gallery of Victoria's Miss Lily Stirling (c.1890), the portrait of the daughter of the prominent Dr Robert Stirling. She is dressed in a symphony of white fur-trimmed hat and coat, her face carefully painted in peachy Renoiresque flesh tones; yet Lily is in control, her gaze steady and sincere.

The face of Sylvia Purves is beautifully observed. Despite her youth, Roberts portrays her as noticeably self-aware, paying no attention to the hovering artist. He positions her within the same green patterned background found in many of his studies during the 1880s. The hammock was also a familiar device. One of Roberts's previous works, Cream and Black (c.1889), at one time titled Girl in a Hammock, shows a lounging Lucy Walker. The hammock facilitates a sense of quiet contemplation and study, although in Sylvia's case it also cocoons the young child within its knotted strings.

The waves of Sylvia's flaxen hair and flushed cheeks reflect the bloom of youth; her lips, painted a vibrant ruby red, are a picture of health. A childhood daydream is configured as optimism for Australia's future. Roberts, who faced the struggle of emigration, portrays the vitality and security of those fortunate to be born in Australia. Sylvia grew up, worked for many charities and in 1935 was appointed as private secretary to Her Excellency Lady Isaacs, wife of the Governor General. She was sophisticated, intelligent and must have been a good bridge player, one of Lady Isaacs' conditions of service.

Dr Julie Cotter

References
Julie Cotter, Tom Roberts and the Art of Portraiture, Port Melbourne, Thames & Hudson, 2015, p. 212
Humphrey McQueen, Tom Roberts, Macmillan, 1996, p. 332; p. 388
Virginia Spate, "Tom Roberts and Australian Impressionism: 1869-1903," (MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 1962), cat. 96
Helen Topliss, Tom Roberts 1856–1931: A Catalogue Raisonné, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1985, cat. 160