Frederick McCubbin
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Frederick McCubbin (25 February, 1855 - 20 December, 1917) was an Australian painter who was prominent in the famous Heidelberg School, one of the most important periods in Australia's visual arts history.
Born in Melbourne, the third of eight children of a baker, McCubbin worked for a time as solicitor's clerk, a coach painter, and in his family's bakery business while studying art at the National Gallery of Victoria's School of Design, where he met Tom Roberts and studied under Eugene von Gerard. He also studied at the Victorian Academy of the Arts, and in 1876 and from 1879 to 1882 exhibited there, selling his first painting in 1880. In this period, with the death of his father he became responsible for running the family business.
By the early 1880's, his work began to attract considerable attention and won a number of prizes from the National Gallery, including a 30-pound first prize in 1883 in their annual student exhibition, and by the mid-1880's began to concentrate more on the works of the Australian bush that made him most famous.
In 1888, he became Master of the School of Design at the National Gallery. In this position he taught a number of students who themselves became prominent Australian artists, including Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton.
He continued to paint through through the first two decades of the 20th century, though by the beginning of World War I his health began to fail. He traveled to England in 1907 and visited Tasmania, but aside from these relatively short excursions lived most of his life in Melbourne.
McCubbin married Annie Moriarty in 1889. They had seven children, of whom their son Louis also became an artist.
Works
McCubbin painted a broad range of scenes, from portraits to coastal scenes, which are all well-regarded in the history of Australian art. It is, however, his narrative paintings of bush life for which he is best remembered, most notably The Pioneer, which is his best-known work. In this iconic triptych (set of three paintings), produced in 1906, McCubbin tells a story of the "selectors" who settled much of Australia's farmland in the latter years of the 19th century.
A central figure in the Heidelberg school, McCubbin's later works reveal the influence of his trip to England and the influence of J.M.W. Turner
Location
McCubbin's works are exhibited in most major Australian galleries, with the National Gallery of Victoria having some of his best.
References and links
- Australian government website on McCubbin, source of most of the material for this article (http://www.artistsfootsteps.com/html/Artists_mccubbin.htm)
- Biography - Brighton Cemetery (http://www.brightoncemetery.com/HistoricInterments/150Names/mccubbinf.htm)