Arcadópolis
Girl with Bird at the King Street Bakery
Frederick McCubbin, 1886
What you see
On the left stands a low whitewashed building with a brown glass-panelled door and white curtains. On the right, a fence of weathered grey planks has a gate left open, and through the gap we see a girl in a white pinafore sitting on a bench, knitting. In front, on the dirt ground, a black and white bird pecks about. A vine grows overhead.
The colours are quiet: off-whites, greys, browns and the green of the vine, with an overcast sky behind the brick chimneys. The planks and wall show stains and wear painted with care. Look for the red yarn in the girl’s hands and, by the right-hand gate, what appears to be a grey cat peeking out.
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
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