William Beckwith McInnes (18 May 1889 – 9 November 1939) was an Australian portrait painter, winner of the
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
seven times for his traditional style paintings. He was acting-director at the National Gallery of Victoria and an instructor in its art school.
Early life
McInnes was born in
St Kilda, a suburb of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, to Malcolm McInnes and his wife Alice Agnes, née Beckwith. Despite lack of family artistic tradition, he was keen to draw from the time he could hold a pencil. In 1903, at 14 years of age, he enrolled in the drawing school of the
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum.
The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
under
Frederick McCubbin
Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...
. Later he moved up to the painting school under
Lindsay Bernard Hall
Lindsay Bernard Hall (28 December 1859 – 14 February 1935) was an English-born Australian artist, teacher and art gallery director.
Early life and career
Hall was born at Garston, Liverpool, England, the son of a broker of the same famil ...
.
Artistic career
He won his first prizes for drawing the figure from life, and for painting a head from life, and shared the prize for a landscape in 1908.
Soon afterwards McInnes held a successful show of his paintings at the
Melbourne Athenaeum Gallery in conjunction with
F. R. Crozier, which was followed in 1911 by a journey to Europe where he did much landscape painting and made acquaintance with the masterpieces of Rembrandt, Velasquez and Raeburn.
McInnes was represented in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
at the exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in oils in 1913.
He returned to Melbourne in the same year, where a one-man show was held at the Athenaeum gallery and nearly everything was sold. In 1916 he acted as locum tenens for Frederick McCubbin, master of the school of drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria, during McCubbin's six months' leave of absence. McInnes was temporarily appointed to the position in 1918 after McCubbin's death, and in 1920 he was permanently appointed.
In 1921, he won the first
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
s for portraiture. He went on to win the award a total of seven times.
McInnes revisited Europe in 1925 and found he was in great demand as a portrait painter. For many years he was unable to spare time to do landscape work. In 1927 he was commissioned by the Federal government to depict the opening of the first parliament in Canberra by the Duke of York.
In 1928 he exhibited with the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, and in 1933 he visited England again to paint the Duke of York (later
King George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...
).
In the following year when
Bernard Hall left for England as adviser for the
Felton bequest, McInnes was appointed acting-director of the National Gallery of Victoria, and on Hall's death, was appointed head of the painting school. In 1937 McInnes became an invited foundation member of, and exhibited with,
Robert Menzies
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
' anti-modernist organisation, the
Australian Academy of Art
The Australian Academy of Art was a conservative Australian government-authorised art organisation which operated for ten years between 1937 and 1946 and staged annual exhibitions. Its demise resulted from opposition by Modernist artists, especiall ...
.
Amongst the many portraits by McInnes were those of the surgeons
Archibald Watson
Archibald Watson FRCS (27 July 1849 – 30 July 1940) was an Australian surgeon and professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide.
Early life
Watson was born at Tarcutta, New South Wales, the son of Sydney Grandison Watson, a retired ...
and
Wood Jones.
McInnes' artwork is featured at the
Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...
and the
Art Gallery of NSW
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 ...
. In addition, McInnes has painted a variety of important people in Australian history including officials and aristocratic families.
Late life
McInnes suffered from an imperfect heart all his life. On 30 November 1937 around midnight the car he was driving struck and killed a pedestrian, James Lowrey, on
Brunswick Street in
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
. At the inquest evidence was brought forward that a drug (
Luminal) he was taking for the condition could have affected his driving and been responsible for his staggering and not remembering details of the accident. He was not convicted of any offence.
His general health became affected and in July 1939 he resigned his position as master of the
National Gallery art school. He died on 9 November 1939. He married Violet Muriel Musgrave in 1915, a capable flower painter, who survived him with four sons and two daughters.
McInnes' Archibald Prize winners
* 1921 -
''Desbrowe Annear''
* 1922 -
''Professor Harrison Moore''
* 1923 - ''Portrait of a Lady''
* 1924 - ''
Miss Collins''
* 1926 -
''Silk and Lace (Miss Esther Paterson)''
* 1930 - ''Drum-Major Harry McClelland''
* 1936 - ''Dr. Julian Smith''
Winner: Archibald Prize 1936
Art Gallery of NSW
Dr Julian Augustus Smith (1873–1947) was a surgeon and photographer.
First published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, (MUP), 1988.
File:W B McInnes - H. Desbrowe Annear (1921).jpg , 1921
File:1922 Archibald McInnes Moore.jpg , 1922
File:1923 Archibald McInnes Lady.jpg , 1923
File:McInnes Miss Collins 1924.jpg , 1924
File:1926 Archibald McInnes Paterson.jpg , 1926
File:1930 Archibald McInnes McClelland.jpg , 1930
File:1936 Archibald McInnes Smith.jpg , 1936
McInnes also won the Wynne Prize
The Wynne Prize is an Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture art prize. As one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, it was established in 1897 from the bequest of Richard Wynne. Now held concurrently with the Sir John Sulman Prize ...
in 1918 with ''The Grey Road''.
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Example of his work
{{DEFAULTSORT:McInnes, William Beckwith
1889 births
1939 deaths
Australian portrait painters
Archibald Prize winners
Archibald Prize finalists
Wynne Prize winners
20th-century Australian painters
20th-century Australian male artists
Australian male painters
People from St Kilda, Victoria
Artists from Melbourne
National Gallery of Victoria Art School alumni