"Birth of the Sun"
Oil on Board
67x90cm
Signed Lower Right, Dated 1967
Illustrated page 71 "The Dawn of Time" by Charles Mountford.`
Prov: Osborne Art Gallery Adelaide
Private Collection Adelaide
$4,000-6000
The Birth of the Sun illustrates a creation story explaining the origin of daylight and the cycle of day and night. As recorded in the artist’s published work, the world is initially lit only by the moon, until a conflict between the emu and the brolga leads to an egg being cast into the sky, where it bursts into flame and brings light to the earth for the first time.
The story continues with the establishment of a daily cycle, where the “sky-people” maintain the sun as a fire in the sky, assisted by the call of the kookaburra, whose voice signals the beginning of each day. In this context, natural phenomena are understood through narrative, with animals and elements of the landscape acting as agents within a larger cosmological framework.
Roberts’ paintings frequently serve as visual counterparts to such stories, developed through his long association with anthropologist Charles Mountford and his broader engagement with Aboriginal mythology. The imagery is typically structured around clear, symbolic forms, allowing the work to function as both illustration and interpretation, rather than a depiction of a single moment.
Illustrated in the artist’s published volume, The Birth of the Sun holds particular significance within his oeuvre, linking the painting directly to a recorded narrative source. As such, it stands as a representative example of Roberts’ practice, where image and story are closely aligned, and where the Australian landscape becomes a setting for enduring cultural explanations of the natural world.
