W B McInnes Desbrowe Annear

The inaugural Archibald Prize went to Melbourne artist WB McInnes for this portrait of Harold Desbrowe Annear (1865-1933), one of Melbourne’s leading architects in the early years of the 20th century.

After training at Melbourne’s National Gallery School under Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall, McInnes spent two years in Europe absorbing the work of Rembrandt, Velázquez and Hals. After returning to Australia, he took up the post of drawing instructor at the Gallery School, becoming its head in 1934, and was acting director of the National Gallery of Victoria from 1935 to 1936.

With his wife, fellow artist Violet McInnes, he settled in the Melbourne suburb of Alphington, where Annear had lived. McInnes’ arts and crafts–styled villa, ‘The Poplars’, was designed by Annear, who called for a shared vision in Australian domestic architecture, emphasising the forms of medieval art and imagery of nature, and forging the disciplines of art, architecture and craft.

Highly praised by critics at the time, the portrait shows the 56-year-old Annear settled beside a table littered with architectural drawings and items from his renowned collection of objets d’art.

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph reported: ‘[McInnes] was so doubtful about gaining the prize that he told the frame-maker that he had decided not to forward it. But the latter pointed out that the packing-case was ready, and the carrier was coming: so off it went…’

The winning work – one of three that WB McInnes entered in the 1921 competition – was given by the artist to the Art Gallery of NSW in 1922.