Mrs L. A. Abrahams

When it was first exhibited, Tom Roberts’s portrait of Mrs. L. A. Abrahams was dismissed as ‘a combination of portraiture with genre, which cannot be pronounced a success’ (Age, 16 Nov. 1888, p. 8). Curiously, it is the setting of the portrait in a real interior that accounts for much of the picture’s fascination for us today. The sitter is Golda Abrahams (1858–1945), nee Brasch, the wife of Louis Abrahams, Roberts’s friend and painting companion at Box Hill, Port Phillip Bay and Heidelberg. Roberts had been a witness at their wedding in Sydney on 21 March 1888 and, upon their return to Melbourne, is said to have painted this portrait as a wedding present. The flowers suggest winter or spring, and the setting is Roberts’s studio in Grosvenor Chambers, the purpose-built art centre that had opened at the top of Collins Street, Melbourne, in April 1888. Abrahams also had a studio there.

Roberts painted a number of ‘friendship’ portraits – his Smike Streeton age twenty-four, of 1891 which he retained until his death, is the most famous – but this painting is unique in his oeuvre. Its genre format and intimate ‘cabinet’ size were perfect for his homage to friendship: three cups and saucers have been laid out on the Japanese tray, and he has even scraped away the sitter’s hat, originally included, to make her seem more ‘at home’ in his interior.

Text © National Gallery of Victoria, Australia