Lot 43

For a related work see The Rabbit Burrow 1910, oil on canvas, 69 x 89cm, in the following references:
Whitelaw, B., 'The Art of Frederick McCubbin', National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1991, cat.37, pp.94-95 (illus.)
Mackenzie., A, Frederick McCubbin 1955-1917 'The Prof' and his Art, Mannagum Press, Melbourne 1990, plate 42, pp. 144-145

Frederick McCubbin's image of a young boy and girl foraging in the bush harks, to some degree, to the Victorian era's penchant for scenes of children at play. However McCubbin's painting imparts a far greater sense of liveliness and intimacy, the latter conveyed by the artist's framing of distance views glimpsed through an archway of the trees, a notable characteristic of his work at this time.
The model for the children was in fact Kathleen McCubbin, the artist's daughter. Here she relays her memories of her father's creation of this subject in its large scale version:
"This was painted near our cottage Fontainebleau on Mount Macedon. A large clump of wattle grew there and my father loved that wattle...Thick blackberries also grew in this area and he got the idea for The Rabbit Burrow because he used to see rabbits there, disappearing in to the undergrowth. So I was roped in as usual for the little girl which he painted first, but then he decided to put a little boy - and I took great umbrage at that - I wasn't at all pleased. However it is a beautiful painting, in which he has managed to capture that beautiful grey quality of the wattle. I remember it was painted during the Christmas holidays, I was four years old at the time." 1
1 Kathleen McCubbin in Whitelaw, B, Ibid, p.94