Arcadópolis
A Bush Burial
Frederick McCubbin, 1890
What you see
In a forest clearing, an old man with a white beard and brown coat reads from a book before a mound of yellow earth. On the left, a bearded man in a pale shirt, his back half turned, holds his hat. Beside him, a woman in dark clothes raises a hand to her mouth, and a girl in a brown dress presses close to her. A black dog sniffs the earth in the foreground.
The colours are earthy and subdued, except for the yellow of the dug soil, which draws the light. The trees behind form a grey-green wall. Seek out the wooden cart standing on the right among the bushes and the handle of a tool lying on the ground at the lower right.
About Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin was born in Melbourne, where his parents ran a bakery, and taught drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria’s art school from 1886 until his death; his friends called him “the Proff” for his love of reading and philosophising. In 1885 he founded the Box Hill artists’ camp with Tom Roberts and Louis Abrahams, the seed of the Heidelberg School, and painted large scenes of life in the Australian bush, using his own family as models. Paintings such as “The Pioneer” and “Down on His Luck” became Australian icons, and many critics consider the works he made after a trip to Europe in 1907 the finest of his career.
More by Frederick McCubbin
The Arcadópolis Museum has 443 public-domain works in 40 rooms, free to explore in 3D in your browser.