Kenneth Robertson Macqueen (15 April 1897 – 21 June 1960) was an Australian farmer and artist, known for watercolors.

History

Macqueen was born in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

, a son of William Sweyn Macqueen DD. (c. 1860 – 1 November 1914), a Presbyterian minister, and Rachel Cecilia "Ray" Macqueen, née Robertson, later of Vaucluse Road, Vaucluse. Dr Macqueen was, in 1907, moderator of the General Assembly of Queensland. He was educated at

Bowen House School Bowen may refer to: Places Australia * Bowen, Queensland, a town * Bowen Hills, Queensland, a suburb ** Bowen Hills railway station, a railway station in Bowen Hills ** Bowen Park, Brisbane, a park in Bowen Hills * Bowen Bridge, crossing the Derw ...

, and, after the family moved to New South Wales,

Scots College, Sydney The Scots College is a multi-campus independent Presbyterian Church of Australia, Presbyterian Single-sex school, single-sex primary and secondary Day school, day and Boarding school, boarding school for boys, predominantly located in , an Eastern ...

. He also took drawing lessons from Alfred Coffey. In February 1916 he enlisted with the

First AIF The First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during the First World War. It was formed as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 15 Aug ...

and served in France. On his return to Australia he took up farming at Mount Emlyn near

Millmerran Millmerran , known as Domville between 1 June 1889 and 16 November 1894, is a town and a locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Millmerran had a population of 1,563 people. Geography The town is on the ...

, in the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

region of Queensland. In 1926 he married

Olive Crane Mary Olive Crane (born 28 November 1957) is a Canadian politician and social worker from Douglas Station, Prince Edward Island. She was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island from 2007 to 2010 on an interim bas ...

(1895–1935), a well-known artist, and together painted in their spare time. Art historian Alan McCulloch observes that he was one the first Australian artists to paint watercolors in the modern style, producing simple formalized semi-abstract landscapes. He was a member of the

Royal Queensland Art Society The Royal Queensland Art Society is an organisation for practicing artists and those who appreciate art in Queensland, Australia. It is the oldest art society in Queensland. History A meeting was held in the Brisbane School of Arts on Thursday ...

Australian Watercolour Institute The Australian Watercolour Institute (AWI) is a non-profit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolour painting in Australia. It was founded in 1923 by six painters in Sydney, and was modeled after the Royal Watercolour Soci ...

and

Contemporary Group, Sydney Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it i ...

. He exhibited at the Royal Academy,

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) was founded in London in 1885 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. It continues to hold an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries in London, exhibiting works by both members and a ...

, and the Watercolor Institute's annual exhibitions. He is represented in most Australian State galleries, as well as Ballarat and

Wanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

, New Zealand. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York purchased his ''Cabbage Gums and Cypress Pines'' in 1941.

Personal

On 2 April 1926 Macqueen married

Olive Kathleen Crane Olive Kathleen Crane (9 May 1895 – 13 June 1935) was an Australian artist, known for book illustrations and etchings. She was married to watercolorist Kenneth Macqueen. History Crane was born in Ashfield, Sydney, the youngest daughter of Jane ...

(9 May 1895 – 13 June 1935) of

Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

, Sydney. They had two children, Marion and Revan. She died a few months after his birth, and her sister Mildred helped raise the family.

Bibliography

*Macqueen, K., ''Adventures in Watercolour'', The Legend Press, Sydney, 1948

References

External links

Important works by Kenneth MacqueenFive paintings at QAGOMA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macqueen, Kenneth 1897 births 1960 deaths Australian farmers Australian watercolourists