Student name : TRAM Thi Duy NGUYEN (Anna)

Unit : VU 21473 Task 1

Last week, I visited the National Gallery Victoria with my teacher

and classmates. Here, there are many works of art by famous artist
around the world, especially the Australian artists. Among these works, I
was impressed with the painting Shearing the rams by the Australia
artist Tom Roberts. This essay will focus on the historical background of
the painting including its cultural significance. In addition it will speak
about the feature of the painting and will review my trip to National
Gallery Victoria.
First, the historical background and cultural significance meaning
of the painting is interesting. Acording to Wikipedia Shearing the
Rams is an 1890 painting by the Australian artist Tom Roberts.
It shows the strength of the Australian labor, work hard, take pride in
work no matter how the working environment is and team-work,
cooperate to develop the lives of yourself, family, community and bigger
country. The care and the concentration that the shearing job requires
also highlight the importance of wool during this time. People gathering
together, working in an organized order to speed up the process, all of
that give an impression that wool is of high demand at the time, maybe
even one of the most important products in the market.
Second, the feature of this painting is vivid and realistic.
Acording to ngv.vic.gov.au What immediately impresses is the work's
evident vivid realism, the snapshot, photographic composition. The
painting is rectangular and was drawn in oil. The house where people are
working is wooden, wide and long, in the left is the sheep cages, and the
right is where the sheep are being sheared. The scene is set in a
farmhouse. There are about 20 people, so there are paid workers or
shepherds. Each of them is doing a different job, they are shearing a
different layer of the sheep coat. In the left of the aisle, there is the
presence of a teenage boy, indicating that at that period of time, kids had
to help parents or adults doing works. The helping boy symbols the next
generation, who are going to be experienced workers and also proudly
prepared for the future ahead. In the right of the aisle, there is an old
man sitting, he is looking at people working, so he can be the sheep
owner. There is no sign of mechanization in the picture, all the toil needs
to be done manually, so the time this painting was drawn prior to the
industrial revolution. The overall spirit is that everybody is working in
harmony and happiness, the boy and the woman is smiling, there is a
man drinking water at the back. People are concentrating a lot, they are
attentive and careful of what they are doing, that gives me a sense of
responsibility and pride. The act of responsibility they perform suggests
that they are working hard not just for them, but also for the
development of the farm or regional or even national industry.

Finally, review my trip to National Gallery Victoria. Acording to

ngv.vic.gov.au: The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is the oldest
and most visited gallery in Australia. National Gallery of Victoria is
famous for the public art collection of the oldest and most diverse in
Australia, with many works of art are display. Here display a collection
of the most important art of the Australia, with everything from antiques
and Roman Egypt, the ancient Asian art to the Renaissance, art history
from the colonial era to Australia current.

We had a great visit at the NGV. That would be a valuable

experience that I will never forget. It has given me a lot more knowledge
about art culture of Australia.

Reference
www.wikipedia.com (2016)
www.ngv.vic.gov.au(2016)
www.picturestore.com.au(2016)