frame-maker, was born into a wealthy Tasmanian family, a daughter of Caleb Williamson and Elizabeth, née Cakebread. By the 1880s her father was manager of Craig & Williamson’s, a prosperous department store in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. The family home then became Rangeview in Mary Street, Kew. After attending Mrs Cowper’s school at Launceston Lillie matriculated to the University of Melbourne in 1876. Although full details of her early art training remain unknown, she attended the National Gallery Schools in the early 1880s.

In 1886 Lillie embarked on the Grand Tour with her friend Mrs Lewis and family. They visited England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Not long before she left, she met the painter Tom Roberts ; her first surviving letter to him is dated 15 April 1886. They were married on 30 April 1896 in St Hilary’s Church of England, East Kew, spent their honeymoon in Tasmania then moved to Sydney, where they lived at 6 Little Paul Street, Balmain. Their son, Caleb, was born on 31 January 1898.

In 1888 Lillie Williamson had become an exhibiting member of the Victorian Artists’ Society; she showed about five oil paintings in the annual exhibitions between 1888 and 1892. The earliest date given by Helen Topliss for a frame carved by her is 1894; it houses Tom Roberts’ painting, Billie Millera (unlocated). There is evidence that Lillie was also carving frames for other artists at this time. Early in 1903 Lillie Williamson and Tom Roberts travelled to London, in part so that Roberts could complete 'the Big Picture’ (on the opening of the First Commonwealth Parliament at Melbourne). They remained there until 1923 and these years represent the blossoming of Lillie Williamson’s career. In 1905-8 she attended woodcarving and gilding classes in London. In 1908 two of her works were hung 'on the line’ at the Royal Academy. She was exhibiting her work, receiving commissions, some from royalty, and carving frames for her husband’s work.

Mrs Tom Roberts was awarded a first prize certificate for a carved and gilded frame (now lost) shown in the Imperial Exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush in 1909. Her reputation as a frame-maker was well established in both London and Australia by the mid-1900s. One of Lillie’s frames, still with the family, contains her husband’s portrait of her (1910). Another frames Roberts’ portrait of a neighbour at Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mrs M.P. Thompson (1912), and Lillie may have framed other paintings by Roberts for the Thompsons.

Lillie left England for Australia on 6 January 1923. After her death, on 3 January 1928, Tom Roberts married Miss Jean Boyes of Lochmalien, Tasmania, a lifelong friend of Lillie’s.

Writers:

Gray, Pamela Clelland

Date written:

1995

Last updated:

2011