Arcadópolis
Violet and Gold
Frederick McCubbin, 1911
What you see
A curtain of upright trunks fills the canvas from side to side. On the left, warm light filters through the trees in the distance. Below, a little right of center, a few cows, one dark and the others pale, drink from a pool or creek that fills the lower band. Fallen branches cross diagonally on the left.
There are almost no outlines: everything is built from short, criss-crossing strokes that mix violets, greens, blues and touches of gold, so the forest seems to shimmer. The water repeats those colours in its reflections. Notice the yellow glint among the trunks on the left and the cows mirrored in the water.
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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