FREDERICK McCUBBIN

Private collection, Sydney
Fine Australian Art, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 19 September 2005, lot 11
Private collection, Sydney; purchased from the above 

Exhibition of Oils by the late Fred McCubbin, The Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, 9 - 19 September 1941, cat. 19 (label on the reverse)

Traditional contemporary frame. Tiny circular area of approx. 1mm in diameter of paint loss to top edge along the frame rebate. UV inspection reveals tiny areas of retouching to sky presumably from old fly spots.
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Frederick McCubbin visited Colombo, in Ceylon or present day Sri Lanka, en route to Europe in 1907. This was his long awaited, first and only overseas journey. He sailed from Melbourne aboard the Prince Heinrich on 21 May.

In one of the letters he wrote home to his wife Annie, he describes the colour and excitement of the busy port city: 'Colombo is a wonderful place, full of colour - the streets are simply splendid, the landscape so vivid and green, ... the people and the shops are wonderful'.¹ Charles Conder had been similarly delighted by Colombo in 1890: his vibrant on-the-spot impression, comparable with McCubbin's, is now in the National Gallery of Victoria.

McCubbin was met and shown around by the Australian born but now celebrated Scottish impressionist Edward Atkinson Hornel - with whose ideas about art he identified strongly. However he lamented the lack of time for painting during his brief stopover: 'The place - I could only glance at painting - ...you want months to get an idea of it...The soft warm air languorous with subtle odours - the varied costumes etc.' At Colombo is one of the rare plein-air paintings datable to McCubbin's overseas travels, capturing the colour and movement of the small boats that raced out to meet arriving ships at that time. Clearly evident are both the immediacy of his response to this 'exotic' land, its people, and the fascination with colour and impressionism that made him so eager to experience international contemporary art at first hand.

1. Mackenzie, A., Frederick McCubbin 1855-1917, 'The Prof' and his art, Mannagum Press, Lilydale, 1990, p. 250