William Beckwith McInnes
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox artist
William Beckwith McInnes (18 May 1889 – 9 November 1939) was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the Archibald Prize seven times for his traditional style paintings. He was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria and an instructor in its art school.
Early lifeEdit
McInnes was born in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, to Malcolm McInnes and his wife Alice Agnes, née Beckwith. Despite lack of family artistic tradition, he was keen to draw from the time he could hold a pencil. In 1903, at 14 years of age, he enrolled in the drawing school of the National Gallery of Victoria under Frederick McCubbin. Later he moved up to the painting school under Lindsay Bernard Hall.Template:Cn
Artistic careerEdit
He won his first prizes for drawing the figure from life, and for painting a head from life, and shared the prize for a landscape in 1908.
Soon afterwards McInnes held a successful show of his paintings at the Melbourne Athenaeum Gallery in conjunction with F. R. Crozier, which was followed in 1911 by a journey to Europe where he did much landscape painting and made acquaintance with the masterpieces of Rembrandt, Velasquez and Raeburn.
McInnes was represented in London at the exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in oils in 1913.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
He returned to Melbourne in the same year, where a one-man show was held at the Athenaeum gallery and nearly everything was sold. In 1916 he acted as locum tenens for Frederick McCubbin, master of the school of drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria, during McCubbin's six months' leave of absence. McInnes was temporarily appointed to the position in 1918 after McCubbin's death, and in 1920 he was permanently appointed.
In 1921, he won the first Archibald Prizes for portraiture. He went on to win the award a total of seven times.<ref name="adb.anu"/>
McInnes revisited Europe in 1925 and found he was in great demand as a portrait painter. For many years he was unable to spare time to do landscape work. In 1927 he was commissioned by the Federal government to depict the opening of the first parliament in Canberra by the Duke of York.<ref name="adb.anu">Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1928 he exhibited with the Royal Academy, and in 1933 he visited England again to paint the Duke of York (later King George VI).
In the following year when Bernard Hall left for England as adviser for the Felton bequest, McInnes was appointed acting-director of the National Gallery of Victoria, and on Hall's death, was appointed head of the painting school.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1937 McInnes became an invited foundation member of, and exhibited with, Robert Menzies' anti-modernist organisation, the Australian Academy of Art.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Amongst the many portraits by McInnes were those of the surgeons Archibald Watson and Wood Jones.
McInnes' artwork is featured at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of NSW. In addition, McInnes has painted a variety of important people in Australian history including officials and aristocratic families.
Late lifeEdit
McInnes suffered from an imperfect heart all his life. On 30 November 1937 around midnight the car he was driving struck and killed a pedestrian, James Lowrey, on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. At the inquest evidence was brought forward that a drug (Luminal) he was taking for the condition could have affected his driving and been responsible for his staggering and not remembering details of the accident.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was not convicted of any offence.
His general health became affected and in July 1939 he resigned his position as master of the National Gallery art school.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He died on 9 November 1939.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He married Violet Muriel Musgrave in 1915, a capable flower painter, who survived him with four sons and two daughters.Template:Citation needed
McInnes' Archibald Prize winnersEdit
- 1921 - Desbrowe Annear<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1921, Art Gallery of NSW.
(AGNSW Collection entry)</ref> - 1922 - Professor Harrison Moore<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1922, Art Gallery of NSW</ref>
- 1923 - Portrait of a Lady<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1923, Art Gallery of NSW.
(AGNSW Collection entry)</ref> - 1924 - Miss Collins<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1924, Art Gallery of NSW
Miss Gladys Neville Collins (1891–1960) was the daughter of J.T. Collins, lawyer, Victorian State Parliamentary draughtsman, and trustee of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria.
She was also painted and drawn by George W Lambert:
- The white glove 1921, Lambert Retrospective, nga.gov.au;
- Head study of Miss Gladys Neville Collins 1922, George W. Lambert, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The portrait was purchased by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1930 and is on public display at the AGSA.</ref>
- 1926 - Silk and Lace (Miss Esther Paterson)<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1926, Art Gallery of NSW.
(AGNSW Collection entry)</ref> - 1930 - Drum-Major Harry McClelland<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1930, Art Gallery of NSW
Harry McClelland (1884–1954) was an artist and philanthropist living south of Melbourne with a hobby as a pipe band leader. McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, mcclellandgallery.com;
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- 1936 - Dr. Julian Smith<ref>Winner: Archibald Prize 1936, Art Gallery of NSW
Dr Julian Augustus Smith (1873–1947) was a surgeon and photographer.
Template:Cite book First published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988.</ref>
- W B McInnes - H. Desbrowe Annear (1921).jpg
1921
- 1922 Archibald McInnes Moore.jpg
1922
- 1923 Archibald McInnes Lady.jpg
1923
- McInnes Miss Collins 1924.jpg
1924
- 1926 Archibald McInnes Paterson.jpg
1926
- 1930 Archibald McInnes McClelland.jpg
1930
- 1936 Archibald McInnes Smith.jpg
1936
McInnes also won the Wynne Prize in 1918 with The Grey Road.
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
External linksEdit
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