Hillside, Macedon

Frederick McCubbin
born Australia, 1855

Hillside, Macdeon 1904
Oil on canvas
Geelong Gallery
On loan from the Cbus Collection of Australian Art, as advised by Dr Joseph Brown

On 7 November 1904 McCubbin wrote to Tom Roberts, 'The bush up our way looks more charming than ever. Pictures everywhere … '.

As each of the works painted in the Mount Macedon landscape reveal, this bush setting provided McCubbin with an array of compositional options. Hillside, Macedon was painted in the same year as The pioneer: its representation of cleared land, an established path, a fence line and modest cottage subtly convey the impacts of settlers on the land (in contrast to the overt narrative of the larger triptych).     

In 1904, a critic for The Age wrote: ‘The Hillside, Macedon’, is a fine rendering of the radiant atmosphere of the mountains; the composition has a fine diversity, and the foreground, in its harmony of tone, is a delightful piece of colour …