The Mccubbin Times15 August 2009
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THE McCUBBIN TIMES, 15 AUGUST 2009 THE McCUBBIN TIMES, 15 AUGUST 2009 ART NOTES ART NOTES MELBOURNE CELEBRATES FEDERATION Stature Still Increasing McCUBBIN SHOW 15 AUGUST 2009 in Centenary Year INSPIRING National HEN posterity has cast its vote the artistic RETROSPECTIVE exhibition of paintings by Wstature of the late Frederick McCubbin is the late Frederick McCubbin at the Latrobe Gallery of likely to increase, and in inverse ratio the later Gallery,A National Gallery, fulfills expectations. work of Sir Arthur Streeton may lose some of It is the major artistic event of the year. its present day popularity. Australia uring his youth to 1910. Within this period OMPRISED of 56 ART SHOW Streeton was the artist painted some of works drawn from showcases D C EARLY AUSTRALIAN undoubtedly the greater his finest work. private collections, and The McCubbin Times artist. Consciously or By State and provincial gall- IMPRESSIONIST Frederick unconsciously, he fell a Special eries, it has been brought victim to the charms of Correspondent together to mark the Twenty-four canvasses by Frederick McCubbin, one of McCubbin success and the poet made in London centenary of the artist’s the originators of the school of An exhibition of 76 works way for the businessman. birth and to do honour to a landscape painting, which with McCubbin’s art, on the His former broad state- of art created by Frederick great landscape painter. modifications, still dominates McCubbin during the last other hand evolved steadily ment of tone had been re- Australian art, are showing at Subject of comment in eleven years of his life, and towards the end of placed by the broken colour this column (25/10/55), the Sedon Gallery, Elizabeth Street. opened at the National Gallery his life attained a lyricism technique which produced the display offers a unique of Australia last night. The unique in Australian art. canvasses shimmering with They cover a good part of his opportunity to study the artistic career, and show consid- exhibition titled McCubbin: It is true that some of his light and atmosphere. works of one of the finest erable variety in style. Nearly Last Impressions 1907–17 subject pictures are marred Few, if any of the paint- artists this country has all the work is impressionist, includes images of city life, by an element of Victorian ings in the show represent produced. but it is far removed from the portraits, interiors, landscape sentimentality, but if the the artist at his best, but high key of colour introduced scenes around South Yarra theme is ignored, such com- as he did not seem to have By by Steeton. McCubbin painted and Mount Macedon, views positions as The Pioneers with a broken touch, closer to of industry and maritime ever painted a really bad “The Age” Princes Bridge Arch, Melbourne 1901, albumen photograph, 10.6 x 15.3 cm, National Library of Australia, Canberra that of Monet, and his method activities. and Down On His Luck picture, collectors may Art Critic of building up a landscape or an live as beautiful studies of approach the display with interior out of misty half-lights REFERENCES © National Gallery of Developed by NGA The exhibition traces the the bush. confidence. Armed with art illus- is entirely personal. Australia, Canberra, 2009 Education radical changes in McCubbin’s In their presence one can Some of McCubbin’s trated catalogue contain- As one of the creators of the and produced by NGA techniques after his trip abroad Australian landscape, McCub- Websites in 1907 when he saw the almost smell the blue gums artistic talent was inherited ing an introduction by Mr All rights reserved. No part Publishing in conjunction and blue bitter smoke of a by his son. bin has earned the respect with nga.gov.au/mccubbin works of JMW Turner, John Arnold Shore, visitors may which he is treated. His work, of this publication may be with the exhibition bushman’s camp fire. It is appropriate that trace McCubbin’s progress prov.vic.gov.au/exhibs/ournation/melbtour2.htm Constable and Claude Monet however, was not uniformly reproduced or transmitted in McCubbin: Last in London and Paris. He McCubbin was born in some of Louis’s work through three stages of successful or purposeful. Some tate.org.uk/servlet/BrowseGroup?cgroupid=999999998 any form or by any means, Impressions 1907–17 returned to Australia inspired 1855. The centenary of his should be shown side by artistic development. of his smaller canvasses today tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999996 electronic or mechanical by this experience and began birth is to be acknowledged side with that of his father. Although his reputation may create more interest than National Gallery of the large show pieces. &workid=14780 (including photocopying, painting in a more expressive later in the year with an If his work does not arouse rests mainly on his abilities Australia, Canberra The exhibition will be opened recording or any information and experimental manner. exhibition at the National the same admiration, it is as a painter of landscape nga.vic.gov.au/collection/pub/itemDetail? 14 August – 1 November this afternoon by Sir Keith Mur- storage and retrieval system), McCubbin: Last Impressions Gallery. the work of a sensitive artist and genre, he executed artworkID=34883 2009 doch, and will be on view until without permission from the highlights the artist’s fascination Now at Joshua McClel- with a fine appreciation for some good portraits and September 19. —G.W.H. nga.gov/podcasts/fullscreen/turner_vid.shtm publisher. Art Gallery of Western with the effects of light—the land’s rooms, 82 Collins the colour and atmosphere interiors. The Argus 9 September 1941 Australia, Perth glow of a setting sun, the Street, is a display of 12 of the Australian landscape. In the latter category The 12 December 2009 – 28 H The National Gallery of Australia is an atmosphere of early morning paintings by this artist. Little Girl at the Piano and Publications Australian Government Agency March 2010 or the interplay of light and The period covered by from The Age 26 July 1955 Petit Dejeunex rank with Kathleen Mangan, Daisy chains, war, then jazz, Bendigo Art Gallery shadow in a city street. the collection is from 1908 his finest landscapes. Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1984 H nga.gov.au 24 April – 25 July 2010 Canberra audiences have until from The Age 8 November 1955 Kathleen Mangan, Autumn memories: a McCubbin 1 November 2009 to see the work of this significant family album, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1988 Proudly sponsored by Australian artist. The exhibition Andrew Mackenzie, Frederick McCubbin 1855–1917: will then travel to Perth and ‘The Proff’ and his art, Mannagum Press, Lilydale, Bendigo. Photograph of Fred McCubbin by Mina Moore c 1913 1990 sepia-toned gelatin silver photograph 13.8 x 9 cm Castlemaine Art Gallery & Historical Museum, Victoria, Percy Leason Bequest Fund, 1995 THE McCUBBIN TIMES, 15 AUGUST 2009 THE McCUBBIN TIMES, 15 AUGUST 2009 THE McCUBBIN TIMES, 15 AUGUST 2009 PRIZE REAL SON TELLS ALL McCUBBIN GOES BUSH ABOUT McCUBBIN’S ESTATE WITH I can see my father going into the bush with his battered old MARITIME ATMOSPHERE VIEWS felt hat and his painting coat which was smeared with paint TECHNIQUE and he carried his easel and paint box. He used to go and He has departed from the The association may be congratulated on a worthy commencement, and although its aims We have moved as you find a secluded spot and put down his camping stool and he direct method of painting of have not as yet been quite achieved there is a good deal of the raising of the traditional blinds see. This is the loveliest would paint his subjects right there in the bush on the spot. his earlier works and glazes to let the sunlight stream in. The colour key of the exhibition, while diversified, ranging as place I have ever lived in. His easel was collapsible and folded into three and was or, to use his own words, it does from the highest to the lowest notes of the register, is generally characteristically ‘scumbles’ his colour on by A charming old colonial usually strapped to his paint box. When he opened up his high, and that is modern. In touring the room the clever work demands many halts, the first paint box, he had his palette on one side and all his paints means of many applications. house of stone cool—on stop being in front of the realist, Mr. George Lambert’s, two naïve and impetuous studies, the hottest days—perched and oils and mixers on the other side, along with his brushes The picture was first ‘sketched in’ in one warm tone, probably Chesham street (an anatomical tour de force) and “The Housekeeper”. Then there is Miss right over the Yarra with and of course his palette knife. He didn’t need to wander far because there were so many paintable subjects right there with some sienna and white. Cumbrae-Stewart’s broadened and simplified, sweet and tender pastel, “Blue Bonnet”: three acres of garden close to the cottage. After this, painting in colour Mr. Meldrum’s appealing and spirituelle head of a lady and a child; Mr. Edward Officer’s and trees …The winding commenced. The pigment Kathleen Mangan (McCubbin’s daughter) quoted in Andrew keen dealing with sensations, not with actualities, the appeal of nature to the senses as in stream, gums, osiers and was mixed on the palette Mackenzie, Frederick McCubbin 1855–1917: ‘The Proff’ and his “Tasmanian Hills”, “The Lachlan Valley”, and the musical nocturne in paint, “A Waterhole wattle—interspersed.