Frederick mccubbin- wrote about the bush

Painting by Frederick McCubbin

A bush burial (earlier known as The last of the pioneers) is an painting by the Australian artist Frederick McCubbin. The painting depicts a burial attended by a small group - an older man reading from a book, a younger man with a dog, and a woman and child. The relationships between the figures is unclear and its ambiguity and sentimental nature has seen the work described as a frontier example of the Victorian-era problem pictures.^[1] From the time the painting was shown at the Victorian Artists Society Winter Exhibition in , there has been differing opinions on the story told by the work with "the critic for Table Talk magazine writ[ing] that the woman is newly widowed. In The Argus, she is the grief-stricken mother of a dead child."^[2]The Age referred to the "deceased, doubtless the wife of the grey-haired old man reading the service."^[1] The burial itself also refers to the memento mori tradition.

Like Dutch vanitas pictures of the 17th century – with their skulls and snuffed candles, and fruit and flowers past their use-by date – McCubbin is reminding the viewer of the inevitability of death. You can almost hear the words being read over the grave: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

—&#;Matthew Westwood, ^[2]

The artist's models were Annie McCubbin, the artist's wife, as the woman and Louis Abrahams, a friend, as the younger man.^[3] The young girl is unknown and the older man was John Dunne, whom McCubbin approached in Collins Street stating "You are the right look for the figure in this painting".^[2]

Legacy

In , the Governor of Victoria, John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, offered a prize for the best poem based on A bush burial. Miss Ada Russell's entry was the winner out of at least fifty competitors.^[4]

Chilean-Australian artist Juan Davila recasts McCubbin's painting in his work also titled A bush burial which depicts a refugee passing through Australian immigration point.^[2]

The painting changed hand several times before it was purchased for the Geelong Gallery by public subscription in Reports from the time state the purchase price was £ with £15 donated by the vendor. Lisa Sullivan, the curator of Geelong Gallery, believes that Abrahams was the vendor and the purchase was encouraged by McCubbin himself.^[2]

For a fledgling regional gallery it was a very significant acquisition, and continues to be, of course, It shows the people of Geelong really getting behind the establishment of the gallery.

—&#;Lisa Sullivan, ^[2]

References