Frederick McCubbin Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Frederick McCubbin
Self-portrait, 1886, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Born	(1855-02-25)25 February 1855 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	20 December 1917(1917-12-20) (aged 62) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Education	National Gallery of Victoria Art School
Known for	Painting
Movement	Heidelberg School

Frederick McCubbin (born February 25, 1855 – died December 20, 1917) was a famous Australian artist. He was also an art teacher. He was a very important member of the Heidelberg School art movement. This movement is also known as Australian impressionism.

McCubbin was born and grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. He studied art at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. He learned from artists like Eugene von Guerard and George Folingsby. One of his classmates, Tom Roberts, came back from art training in Europe in 1885. That summer, they started the Box Hill artists' camp. Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder joined them there. These artists became the main group of what was called the Heidelberg School. This art movement was named after Heidelberg, where they had another camp. They painted outdoors, a style called plein air.

During this time, McCubbin taught at the National Gallery school. He later became president of the Victorian Artists' Society and the Australian Art Association. McCubbin wanted to show Australian life in his paintings. He created many large landscapes that showed the Australian bush. These paintings often showed the feelings of European settlers in the bush. Some of his works are now famous in Australian art. These include Down on His Luck (1889), On the Wallaby Track (1896), and The Pioneer (1904).

In 1907, McCubbin took his first and only trip to Europe. There, he saw paintings by J. M. W. Turner and French impressionists. This trip changed his art style. He started using looser brushstrokes and brighter colors. Art experts believe his later works, though less known, are some of his best. Barry Pearce, an art writer, said that McCubbin's vision improved with age. He made some of his greatest paintings in the last ten years of his life.

Early Life and Art Studies
McCubbin's Artistic Journey
His Lasting Impact
Works
See also

Early Life and Art Studies

McCubbin was born in Melbourne. He was the third of eight children. His father, Alexander McCubbin, was a baker from Scotland. His mother, Anne, was from England. Frederick went to school in West Melbourne and Swanston Street.

He worked for a while as a lawyer's clerk. He also painted coaches and helped in his family's bakery. At the same time, he studied art at the National Gallery of Victoria's School of Design. There, he met Tom Roberts and learned from Eugene von Guerard. He also studied at the Victorian Academy of the Arts. He showed his art there from 1876 to 1882. He sold his first painting in 1880. After his father died, he helped run the family business.

McCubbin's Artistic Journey

The Pioneer, 1904, National Gallery of Victoria

By the early 1880s, McCubbin's art started to get a lot of attention. He won several awards from the National Gallery. In 1883, he won first prize in their student exhibition for his color and drawing studies. By the mid-1880s, he focused more on painting the Australian bush. These paintings made him famous.

In 1888, he became an instructor at the National Gallery's School of Design. In this role, he taught many students who later became important Australian artists. These included Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton. By May 1888, McCubbin was painting in the studio of his friend Tom Roberts. This studio was in the Grosvenor Chambers in Collins Street. His son, Louis, would later have a studio in the same building.

McCubbin married Annie Moriarty in March 1889. They had seven children. Their son, Louis McCubbin, also became an artist. He was the director of the Art Gallery of South Australia from 1936 to 1950. One of Frederick's grandsons, Charles, also became an artist.

In 1901, McCubbin and his family moved to Mount Macedon. They moved a house there and called it Fontainebleau. It was in this beautiful place that he painted The Pioneer in 1904. He also painted many other works there. This was the only place where McCubbin ever painted fairies. The house survived the Ash Wednesday bushfires and is still there today. At Macedon, the surrounding bush inspired him to try new ways of showing light and color in nature.

McCubbin continued to paint in the early 1900s. But by the start of World War I, his health began to get worse. He traveled to England in 1907 and visited Tasmania. Other than these short trips, he lived most of his life in Melbourne. He taught at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. His students included the painter Hilda Rix Nicholas and the photographer Ruth Hollick. In 1912, he became a founding member of the Australian Art Association. McCubbin died in 1917 from a heart attack.

His Lasting Impact

Bush Idyll, 1893

In 1998, McCubbin's painting Bush Idyll (1893) sold for $2,312,500. This was a record price for an Australian painting at a public auction at the time. Many people think Bush Idyll is one of the best paintings in Australian art history. It was shown at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 2017 to 2020. It was also part of a special exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery in 2021 and 2022.

On February 25, 2005, a musical about Frederick McCubbin was performed. This was on the 150th anniversary of his birth. It was staged at Federation Square in Melbourne. On March 22, 2016, McCubbin's painting An Old Politician (1879) was found. It had been kept in a private vault in an Australian bank. The painting had not been seen in public since it was sold in the 1880s. McCubbin's letters to Tom Roberts, written between 1891 and 1916, are kept in the State Library of New South Wales.