Moyes Bay, Beaumaris
Frederick McCUBBIN: artist
Moyes Bay, Beaumaris is in many ways a painting of two halves. The left-hand side, where all human activity takes place, shows a recreational boating party on a rocky foreshore, reflecting McCubbin’s interest in painting contemporary life. The right-hand side, in its closely-observed study of rocks, sand and reeds, indicates an awareness of the English critic John Ruskin’s writings that urged artists to depict nature in painstaking detail. The figure of the boy bridges the gap between the two; his close attention to the rock pool and his toy boat (an accurate model of a couta boat – a locally-developed boat specific for fishing in the conditions of Port Phillip Bay and Bass Strait) echoes the artist’s own close observation of nature.
Title
Moyes Bay, Beaumaris
Artist/Maker and role
Frederick McCUBBIN: artist
Date
1887
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
58.6 x 91.6cm (sight);
87.5 x 120 x 9 cm (framed)
87.5 x 120 x 9 cm (framed)
Credit line
Purchased with funds from the Great Australian Paintings Appeal with funds presented by the Swan Brewery Company Ltd, 1978
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1978/00P9