''Breaking the News'' is an

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

painting by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n artist John Longstaff. It shows the interior of a miner's cottage on the Victorian goldfields with an old man breaking the news to a woman of her husband's death in a mining accident. The woman holds an infant in her arms, and two other miners appear in the doorway, carrying the body of the husband on a stretcher. Behind them in the distance stands the mine's

headframe A headframe (also known as a gallows frame, winding tower, hoist frame,Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). ''Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik'' (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter, 1989. pit frame, shafthead frame, headgear, headstock o ...

. ''Breaking the News'' became etched in the popular imagination, and by the 1890s was "known by reproduction in every mining township in Australia". Painted when Longstaff was still an art student, it won him the

National Gallery of Victoria Art School The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years. It is also referred to as the 'National Gallery ...

's first travelling scholarship in 1887. '' The Argus'' described it as "a vivid and accurate presentment of a familiar incident in Australian life". Only one month after the painting was first exhibited in Melbourne, eighty-one coal miners perished in a gas explosion at the Bulli Mine in New South Wales. The New Australasian Gold Mine disaster, Australia's worst below-ground gold mining disaster, occurred on 12 December 1882 in

Creswick Creswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 122 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, in the Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2016 census, Creswick had a populatio ...

, less than twenty kilometres from Longstaff's hometown of Clunes. According to biographer

Nina Murdoch Madoline "Nina" Murdoch (19 October 1890 – 16 April 1976), also known by her married name Madoline Brown and pen name Manin, was an Australian writer and journalist, best known for her biographies and poetry, and travel writings, as well as ...

, Longstaff's childhood memory of a mining fatality was the direct inspiration for ''Breaking the News'': "the day at Clunes, following the tragic ''cortège'' from mine-head to cottage door, he had heard the stricken cry of the young wife at the sight of the stretcher-bearers' burden". Renowned Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson declared himself a "worshipper" of Longstaff after viewing ''Breaking the News'', and discussed the painting's sentimental and social impact at length in an 1899 essay for ''

The Bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

'' titled "If I Could Paint", concluding that he'd "be prouder of a picture like ''Breaking the News'' than of a hundred exquisite alleged studies in the "nood"." The following year, ''The Bulletin'' co-founder and then-owner of ''Breaking the News'',

J. F. Archibald Jules François Archibald, known as J. F. Archibald, baptised John Feltham Archibald, (14 January 1856 – 10 September 1919), Australian journalist and publisher, was co-owner and editor of '' The Bulletin'' during the days of its greatest infl ...

, commissioned Longstaff to paint a portrait of Lawson. Archibald greatly admired the portrait, prompting him to set up a bequest for the Archibald Prize, now Australia's most prestigious prize for portraiture.Henry Lawson (1900) by John Longstaff

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

. Retrieved 26 November 2012. Longstaff went on to win the Archibald five times. ''Breaking the News'' was the inspiration for a 1912 film of the same name. Directed by

W. J. Lincoln William Joseph Lincoln (1870 – 18 August 1917) was an Australian playwright, theatre manager, film director and screenwriter in the silent film, silent era. He produced, directed and/or wrote 23 films between 1911 and 1916. One obituary calle ...

and shot near Melbourne, it depicts the flooding of an underground mine and daring attempts to rescue the miners. The film was a commercial success and received favourable reviews from critics. It is now considered a lost film. ''Breaking the News'' was acquired by the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1933.Breaking the News
Art Gallery of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 November 2012.

References

{{reflist Australian paintings 1887 paintings Mining disasters in Australia Paintings in Australia Collections of the Art Gallery of Western Australia