Grandsons of ‘second shearer’ see priceless masterpiece in the flesh

When Tom Roberts painted a group of Aussie sheep shearers in 1890, he created a historical icon. Now, Jack White’s grandsons have viewed the masterpiece for the first time.

Graham Wise didn’t know his grandfather. But he gazes upon him daily, in his lounge room, in his print of a painting that is a national treasure.

Graham, along with brother Keith, have for the first time viewed the ­original Shearing The Rams, a priceless Tom Roberts masterpiece viewed by millions of people at the National ­Gallery of Victoria.

Their grandfather Jack Wise is the so-called “second shearer” in the painting. He is kneeling over a sheep in a ­depiction that encapsulated a nation’s rural origins and the economic might of the industry from the era.

For the 130th anniversary of the painting, the NGV has loaned the painting for display at the Wangaratta Art Gallery.

It tracked down Keith and Graham, both locals, and invited them to view the painting and visit the site of the nearby shed depicted at Brocklesby Station, in Corowa just north of the NSW border.

“It’s big and beautifully done,” ­Graham said. “It’s very exciting to see the original site, to think of what stemmed from there 130 years ago.”

Graham and Keith, Wise with Tom Roberts’ painting, Shearing the rams 1890, on display at, Wangaratta Art Gallery. Picture: Tim Carrafa courtesy of NGV

For many years, the Wise family didn’t talk much about their grandfather.

He left their grandmother, and moved to Sydney, and the rest of his life remains a mystery to them.

But shearing endured in the family.

The grandsons’ uncle Claude liked shearing to get away from the monotony of cropping. Graham’s son-in-law, Gary Parker, set a local record when he sheared 300 sheep in a day in Queensland about 20 years ago.

NGV director Tony Ellwood said loaning the painting, which has been depicted on coasters and posters for generations, was a “big deal” and perfect timing.

“It’s one of those paintings that rarely leaves the NGV site,” he said.

Roberts was among artists, including Frederick McCubbin, who fostered national identity through the impressionist movement.

He visited Brocklesby Station for several sittings from 1888. He paid local girl Susan Bourne and her sister each sixpence to kick up dust in the empty shed to recapture the atmosphere of shearing time. Bourne was the model for the painting’s depiction of a tar boy.

The work is heralded for its vivid realism, such as the sunlit gold of the bottles of oil for the whetstones, a tobacco pipe lodged in a man’s trousers, and a pair of shears propped against a wall.

Graham, 85, first became aware of the family’s place in national heritage in 1964. He has never sheared, but enjoyed hosting shearers when he owned the Jerilderie Pub in the 1980s.

Keith’s son has a print in his Perth office. He expressed “great pride” for his family’s part in a historical icon that will be cherished for many years to come.

[e-mail]