Arcadópolis
Lost
Frederick McCubbin, 1886
What you see
The girl is just a small figure to the right of center, almost lost among the tall grass and shrubs. She wears a hat and a pale dress with an apron, and raises a hand to her face. Around her, thin pale trunks climb to the top edge, and a thicker one on the left stands between her and us. She is hard to find at first glance.
The colours are golds, mauves and greyish greens, very close to one another, so the girl blends into the landscape. Twigs and leaves form a web of fine strokes over everything. Spot the peeling bark at the foot of the large trunk and the signature in the lower left corner.
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.