Introduction
Frederick McCubbin 1855-1917 artist-teacher and member of the Heidelberg School Movement, which consisted of a group of landscape painters including Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts.
McCubbin is considered one of the most influential artists in Australia due to his use of light, colour and composition.
The following is an overview of McCubbin’s life and career, including his Art Works, his years as an art teacher and how he became known as one of Australia’s First Impressionist and Narrative painters.
Early Years
Frederick McCubbin was born in 1855 in Melbourne, Australia. In the early 1870’s he began his first job as an apprentice coach painter.
In this period, encouraged by his mother, he developed an interest in drawing, which he furthered by taking classes at night school at the Artesian School of Design Trades Hall Lygon St Carlton.
And later at the National Gallery School Melbourne in 1872 under Thomas Clark.
It was at the National Gallery that McCubbin met influential Early Australian Impressionist Artist Tom Roberts when Tom joined the national gallery in 1874 as a fellow student; this important friendship would combine McCubbin’s academic training with Robert’s avant-garde style and lead the direction of Australian impressionism in the late 19th century.
In 1875, after completing his apprenticeship as a coach painter, McCubbin focused on helping the family bakery business after his father died.
It was at this point that he also postponed his studies at the National Gallery school. Over the next three years, after returning to the family bakery business, McCubbin continued to draw in his free time while he worked.
Rejoining art classes in 1877 at the National Gallery Art school under Eugene Von Guerard and later in 1882 under George Folingsby.
McCubbin produces the Art Work “Falls Bridge Melbourne” the work was one of the paintings under Folingsby influence.
Folingsby had a massive impact on McCubbin, as did George Rossi and Julian Ashton until Ashton moved to Sydney.
Frederick McCubbin “Falls Bridge Melbourne” (1882) National Gallery Victoria
The Art Work “An Old Politician” (1879) was one of his earliest narrative works. It depicts George Elliott, the Coach Builder, for whom McCubbin worked for; George Elliott was considered a worldly-wise, educated man who liked to philosophize. McCubbin’s title for this work was more befitting the man’s character rather than his station.
Buonarotti Society and Heidelberg School
McCubbin became a member of the Buonarotti Society in the 1880s; the Society was started by the artist, engraver, and draughtsman, Cyrus Mason, at the Young and Jackson’s Hotel corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets, in Melbourne in May 1883.
As early as 1883, the Society is seen as the birthplace of the ideas that would inspire the Heidelberg school camps at Box Hill in 1885. Membership included men and women who wanted to be professional artists. Which included Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams, Tom Roberts, and Jane Sutherland. The Society was also of primary importance in advancing the careers of female artists in Melbourne until it faded in 1887
These days, the Young and Jacksons Hotel is known for its most famous female “Chloe” (1875). The Melbourne story of the portraiture of Chloe starts when she was exhibited in the Melbourne International Exhibition 1881-1882 and purchased shortly after by Dr Thomas Fitzgerald from French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre.
Jules Joseph Lefebvre. “Chloé” (1875)
In 1882, Dr Fitzgerald loaned the work to the Victoria National Gallery for display; this sparked colossal outcry and controversy, because the gallery’s trustees decided to open the Gallery on Sundays with the nude Chloe amongst the painting exhibited.
Patrons were not impressed with Chloe’s nudity, especially on the sabbath; one of the artists objecting to her hanging at the National Gallery on a Sunday was Frederick McCubbin.
The organizers first placed curtains over her to conceal the nudity, but this didn’t satisfy them; she was removed from the exhibit and sent to owner Dr Fitzgerald. Finally, in 1909, Henry Figsby Young (an art collector and owner of Young and Jackson) purchased the painting for 800 guineas and placed it on display at the Young and Jackson, where she remains today.
In 1880 McCubbin sold his first painting, “View from Fisherman’s Bend”, and in 1882 won a silver medal from the Victorian Academy of Arts, where he exhibited there in the mid-1870s too early 1880s.
He won first prize at the annual student exhibition at the National Gallery in 1883, winning a student prize in 1884 for “Home Again”, which was also inspired by Folingsby. In the same year, McCubbin painted “The letter” (1884). In this composition, you can see his early academic art training that was very European in style.
Frederick McCubbin “The Letter” (1884)
In 1885 McCubbin and his good friend and fellow student Tom Roberts set up camp at Box Hill to paint; Roberts had just returned from Europe with fresh ideas and impressionist techniques.
Robert’s ideas were groundbreaking, and his enthusiasm and passion captured McCubbin interest, with Roberts tutoring McCubbin in this new approach to art practice.
Both men shared a common interest in Plein air painting, the French term for working outside on location in natural light.
It was at box hill in 1886 McCubbin produced “Gathering Mistletoe” and “Lost”, these paintings were fresh, honest Art Works, capturing landscape as they would be without any extra studio effects.
Frederick McCubbin “Lost” (1886)
These two paintings show that McCubbin’s style began to break away from his academic training and take on a more impressionist style.
Folingsby had been a mentor to McCubbin, but Folingsby believed that only a fool would paint outdoors. In contrast, Robert’s approach was to start and finish a composition in one sitting on site and not back in the studio.
This new approach also attracted the very impressionable young painter Arthur Streeton and later Charles Conder who also became a convert; the group explored and developed an innovative array of styles, placing themselves at the forefront of the new all Australia art movement.
Female artist and lesser-known artist also abandoned their studio’s and began painting outdoors at the camps; female artists like Jane Sutherland and May Vale held the flag high for women artists joining in at the camps.
It was a scandal, as women were not permitted in a male-dominated art world and were not permitted to stay at camps overnight, having had to travel to and from the camps each day.
Nonetheless, the group of painters sought to be part of a new cultural shift in how Australian Art is portrayed.
This new movement became known as the Heidelberg School after they painted together at Box Hill, Mentone, and Eagle Mont Hill in the suburb of Heidelberg. The paintings of this period also challenged the idea of Art being a purely decorative object. Still, instead, they began to focus on subjects like Australia’s Nationalist identity, social justice, and equality.
Frederick McCubbin “The Morning Train” (1887)
The late 1880s were critical years for McCubbin; he was made acting Master of the National Gallery of Victoria School of Design in 1886, becoming Master In 1888, a title he held for the remainder of his life.
It is essential to realize McCubbin’s outstanding contribution in developing drawing skills in several thousand students, including such students as David Davies, who enrolled under McCubbin in 1886, and Max Meldrum, who was enrolled under McCubbin in the School of Design, between 1892 and 1895.
McCubbin was a member of the Australian Artist Association, which merged with the Victorian Academy of Art in 1888 and was elected to the Council Victorian Artists’ Society in 1888; he was to become President of the society in 1903-1904 and 1909–1910.
McCubbin was also exhibiting with his friend Tom Roberts at the Grosvenor Chambers Melbourne in and around 1888, and in 1889 he entered a small number of works in the 9-5 Exhibition.
Also in the same year, McCubbin married Annie Moriarty and painted his iconic artwork “Down on His Luck.”(1889)
Frederick McCubbin “Down on His Luck” (1889)
Whilst many of his colleagues travelled to Sydney and Europe, his family kept him in Melbourne; in 1893, he produced “Bush idol” and “feeding time” Feeding time was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria Swapping it for a “A Winter Evening” (1897)
He produced “On the Wallaby Track” (1896), painted near Brighton; his artworks are then represented in the exhibition of Australian Art in the Grafton galleries London in 1898.
Mt Macedon
In 1900 McCubbin moved to Mount Macedon after his wife and became ill; it’s thought that the mountain air would aid her recovery; it’s there that they discovered “Fontainebleau”; a property hidden away on the wild and undeveloped north side of Mount Macedon.
The name “Fontainebleau” comes from a forest near Paris, wherever the Barbizon painters had worked; the property was too far for McCubbin to travel to his work at the National Gallery Victoria, so he took up residence with his sisters and his mother at the Rose of Australia Hotel.
McCubbin and would catch the train to Woodend on weekends from there it was a short cart ride to “Fontainebleau”.
He found the surrounding countryside and the bush of “Fontainebleau” and the Mount Macedon region “very inspiring”, becoming one of the significant painting grounds from the McCubbin producing many works here, including another iconic Australian work, “Pioneer” (1904).
Frederick McCubbin “Studio” (1906) Mt Macedon
McCubbin and would catch the train to Woodend on weekends from there it was a short cart ride to “Fontainebleau”. He found the surrounding countryside and the bush of “Fontainebleau” and the Mount Macedon region “very inspiring”, becoming one of the significant painting grounds from the McCubbin producing many works here, including another iconic Australian work, “Pioneer” (1904).
Today “Fontainebleau” is now in private hands and has declined over recent years; the two brothers who purchased the property set up a not-for-profit trust to buy “Fontainebleau”, paying about $75,000 for the property in 1979. The property is now valued between $1 million and $1.5 million.
The brothers who own the property live in Tasmania; even though they tried to keep the home from being overgrown and neglected, they don’t have the funds for the update needed to bring the property up to standard.
The decline of “Fontainebleau” has been a significant concern for the Woodend district Heritage Society.
Former National Gallery curator John Jones recently brought a group of curators to “Fontainebleau” and held a major exhibition of the artist last decade of work.
The former National Gallery curator explained that the bushland around “Fontainebleau” is so important because, after Heidelberg, it is the most famous Australian painting spot.
“Fontainebleau” is still considered one of the most critical areas in Australia’s Art history because of McCubbin’s many years of painting there.
McCubbin’s held a very significant one-man show in the Athenaeum on 22 April 1904; he exhibited his triptych ‘The Pioneer’.
also held an exhibition at his South Yarra home organized by his wife, Annie. Other artists also exhibited, including Walter Withers, Clara Southern, Jane Price, May Vale and Jane Sutherland.
In 1906, the National Gallery of Victoria purchased “The Pioneer” under the terms of the Felton Bequest.
The painting “The Pioneer” is an example of the nationalism that emerged in Australia following Federation. The work showed the importance of the bush for settlers, their labor in clearing it, and the importance of these early pioneers in shaping the Australian spirit.
In 1907 McCubbin leaves for England and Europe; he teams up with fellow Australian Impressionist and good friend Tom Roberts in London.
Roberts brought McCubbin’s around to London’s many galleries, where McCubbin is impressed and influenced by J.M.W Turner.
McCubbin’s returns to South Yarra in Melbourne, painting in and around the three-acre estate and views across the Yarra River, where he produces “Rain and Sunshine” (1910) and “The Old Cottage South Yarra” (1910)
Frederick McCubbin “Rain and Sunshine” (1910)
In 1915 McCubbin’s works on the book “The Art of Frederick McCubbin”, and in 1916, he has a joint exhibition at the Athenaeum, as well as in the same year is given leave from the National Gallery because of ill health.
He produces his last major work, “Yarra River from Kensington Road” (1917).
Frederick McCubbin is recognized as one of Australia’s best art teachers, and his works are cherished and widely collected by public Galleries and private collectors here in Australia and overseas.
Frederick McCubbin “Shelling the Peas” (1913)
A large exhibition of his works at the National Gallery of Victoria was held in 1955, named ‘A Frederick McCubbin Exhibition to Commemorate the Artist’s Birthday in 1855’.
In 1989, the Victorian Artists Society renamed the upstairs gallery of their building to honor Frederick McCubbin.
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Further Reading below
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mccubbin-frederick-fred-7328https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mccubbin-frederick-fred-7328
https://www.artistsfootsteps.com/html/McCubbin_rainandsunshine.htm