Frederick McCubbin
(Australia 25 Feb 1855–20 Dec 1917)
- Title
- Self portrait
- Year
- 1886
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas on hardboard
- Dimensions
-
68.2 x 43.2cm board; 83.8 x 58.2 x 6.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.r. corner, red oil "F McCubbin/ 1886".
- Credit
- Purchased 1951
- Accession number
- 8559
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Frederick McCubbin studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School under the Romantic landscape painter Eugene von Guérard and later with George Folingsby, an artist whose primary interest lay in academic figure painting. McCubbin was appointed drawing master there in 1886. This self-portrait dates from that year of his first appointment, and reflects the young artist’s pleasure in this recognition.
McCubbin was one of the key founders of the Heidelberg school of Australian Impressionism. Like Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton, McCubbin subsequently became inspired during the 1890s to create large-scale pioneering history subjects, which are among the best known and most popularly admired Australian paintings.
- Bibliography (6)
-
'Southern lights' by Terence Lane, pg. 14., Age 24 Mar 2007, 24 Mar 2007, 14 (illus.).
Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Domain, 2000, 68 (colour illus.), 301.
Desmond Macaulay (Author), Bettina Macaulay (Author), What's lost/what's won - Conviction and contradiction in the art of Frederick McCubbin, Toowoomba, 1999, 3 (colour illus.), 11-12, 20.
Humphrey McQueen (Author), Tom Roberts, Sydney, 1996.
Jane Clark (Australia) (Author), Bridget Whitelaw (Author), Golden summers: Heidelberg and beyond, Melbourne, 1985, 45 (colour illus.).
Sarah Engledow (Australia) (Author), Impressions: painting light & life, Canberra, 2011, 8, 26 (caption), 27 (colour illus.). cat.no. 05
- Exhibition history (7)
-
Artists by artists (1954), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Nov 1954–05 Dec 1954.
The artists' camps: Plein air painting in Melbourne 1885-1898, Monash University Gallery, 07 Jun 1984–11 Jul 1984.
The artists' camps: Plein air painting in Melbourne 1885-1898, S.H. Ervin Gallery, 02 Aug 1984–04 Sep 1984.
What's lost/ what's won: conviction and contradiction in the art of Frederick McCubbin, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, 09 Sep 1999–28 Nov 1999.
To look within: Self portraits in Australia, University of Queensland Art Museum, 16 Apr 2004–20 Jun 2004.
To look within: Self portraits in Australia, National Portrait Gallery [Old Parliament House], 09 Jul 2004–19 Sep 2004.
Impressions: painting light and life, National Portrait Gallery [Parliamentary Zone], 25 Nov 2011–04 Mar 2012.
