Rough and the Smooth, The

1983, 47 Minutes

This is the story of two of Australia’s most influential and important artists: Tom Roberts and Charles Conder. Their lives and work showed marked contrast: Tom Roberts, “the Rough”, with his love of the bush and its people, and Charles Conder, “the Smooth”, 12 years Roberts’ junior, for whom literature and women were “food for art”.

The contrasting lives and work of these two artists are the focus of the film. Despite extraordinary differences and antagonisms, they were bound together by admiration for each other’s talent. Charles Conder died at 40, at the peak of his career. Tom Roberts was still painting in his beloved Melbourne hills until he died at 75.

The story of these two men is told through paintings, drawings, photographs and extracts from early films using over 250 master artworks from more than 20 public galleries in Britain and Australia as well as seldom-seen private collections.

Produced by Film Australia in collaboration with the Friends of the Art Gallery of South Australia. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.