The wood sawyer

Frederick McCubbin
born Australia, 1855

The wood sawyer 1905
Oil on canvas
Shepparton Art Museum Collection
Purchased, 1949

The heavily forested area surrounding the McCubbins’ Mount Macedon cottage, Fontainebleau, and the region’s history of timber production also inspired a focus on the theme of wood cutting.

In The Wood Sawyer McCubbin depicts the physical labour involved in sawing felled trees. The artist’s teenage son Louis was engaged as the model for this work, set within the Mount Macedon landscape.

Louis McCubbin (1890–1952) was the eldest of Frederick and Annie’s seven children and was named after the artist Louis Abrahams. Like his father, Louis McCubbin studied at the National Gallery Art School. He established a career as an artist and was the director of the Art Gallery of South Australia from 1936–50.