.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
I have been down to Williamstown for a few postcards, my dear boy, just like Venice, lovely colour; water and sky, and an old ship. My dear boy, the older I get the wider my interest grows in all life colour, charm. My dear Tom in our past we have been too timid.
(McCubbin to Roberts, 1909)
After his return from Europe in 1907, McCubbin spent his last decade painting sparkling highly keyed canvases and panels, his work influenced by the painting of Turner, Whistler and the impressionists he had so recently seen, and delivering work that counts, in its technique and effect, amongst the most impressionist-like of all Australian art: 'When he visited the outer Melbourne suburb of Williamstown, McCubbin found it to be an exciting painting location. Over several years he painted a number of lively oil sketches ... capturing the immediate sensations of light and atmosphere, and the changing moods of sea and sky. He was fascinated by the ships, the piers along the shoreline, and the old slip. ... McCubbin's Williamstown panels show a new freedom and daring in his approach. He painted rapidly on the spot, using broad brush strokes and his palette knife, and used high key colours to create the sense of flickering light on the water.' (A. Grey, McCubbin Last Impressions 1907-17, Canberra, 2009, p.50)
(McCubbin to Roberts, 1909)
After his return from Europe in 1907, McCubbin spent his last decade painting sparkling highly keyed canvases and panels, his work influenced by the painting of Turner, Whistler and the impressionists he had so recently seen, and delivering work that counts, in its technique and effect, amongst the most impressionist-like of all Australian art: 'When he visited the outer Melbourne suburb of Williamstown, McCubbin found it to be an exciting painting location. Over several years he painted a number of lively oil sketches ... capturing the immediate sensations of light and atmosphere, and the changing moods of sea and sky. He was fascinated by the ships, the piers along the shoreline, and the old slip. ... McCubbin's Williamstown panels show a new freedom and daring in his approach. He painted rapidly on the spot, using broad brush strokes and his palette knife, and used high key colours to create the sense of flickering light on the water.' (A. Grey, McCubbin Last Impressions 1907-17, Canberra, 2009, p.50)