# Bush Idyll

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{{short description|Painting by Frederick McCubbin}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=McCubbin(1).jpg
| title=Bush Idyll
| artist=[Frederick McCubbin](/source/Frederick_McCubbin) 
| year=[1893](/source/1893_in_art) 
| medium=oil on canvas
| height_metric=119.5
| width_metric=221.5
| metric_unit=cm
| city=[Canberra](/source/Canberra)
| museum=[National Gallery of Australia](/source/National_Gallery_of_Australia)
}}
'''''Bush Idyll''''' is an [1893](/source/1893_in_art) painting by Australian artist [Frederick McCubbin](/source/Frederick_McCubbin), and widely regarded as one of the finest masterpieces in Australian art history. The painting depicts a girl and boy - who is playing a tin whistle - lying on the ground near a lake.<ref name="Rule">{{cite news |last1=Rule |first1=Andrew |title=Fifteen years after setting a sales record, a famous painting fails to sell |url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/fifteen-years-after-setting-a-sales-record-a-famous-painting-fails-to-sell/news-story/ef072c7b20388d722d261a965aca544b |accessdate=8 August 2019 |work=Herald Sun |publisher=News Limited |date=3 October 2019}}</ref>

The painting is part of a private collection and, between 2017 and 2020, was on loan to the [National Gallery of Australia](/source/National_Gallery_of_Australia).<ref name="Hardy">{{cite news |last1=Hardy |first1=Karen |title=The highlights of summer 2017-18 at the National Gallery of Australia |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6025139/the-highlights-of-summer-2017-18-at-the-national-gallery-of-australia/ |accessdate=8 August 2019 |work=Canberra Times |publisher=Fairfax Ltd |date=7 December 2017}}</ref>

==Composition==
McCubbin painted the work at [Blackburn](/source/Blackburn%2C_Victoria), now a suburb of [Melbourne](/source/Melbourne). The painting shows [Blackburn Lake](/source/Blackburn_Lake_Sanctuary) in the distance.<ref name="ArtistsFootsteps">{{cite web |title=Bush Idyll 1893 |url=https://www.artistsfootsteps.com/html/McCubbin_bushidyll.htm |website=In the Artists Footsteps |publisher=medialaunch.pty.ltd |accessdate=8 August 2019}}</ref> The model for the girl was Mary Jane Lobb, born in [Castlemaine](/source/Castlemaine%2C_Victoria) in 1881 and died in 1959. The model for the boy is unknown.<ref name="ArtistsFootsteps" />

The work is said to show the influence of French artist [Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot](/source/Jean-Baptiste-Camille_Corot).<ref name="ArtistsFootsteps" />

==Provenance==
McCubbin gifted the painting to a friend, painter and art patron [Louis Abrahams](/source/Louis_Abrahams_(art_patron)). In 1919, years after Abrahams' death, much of his art collection, including ''Bush Idyll'', was put up for auction in Melbourne. ''Bush Idyll'' was purchased by showbusiness promoter [Hugh D. McIntosh](/source/Hugh_D._McIntosh), who took the painting to England. The location of the work was then unknown for 50 years until in 1979 an English pig farmer asked a gallery owner in [Cambridge](/source/Cambridge) to appraise a work he was gifted many years before by a wealthy friend.<ref name="Rule" />

In 1984, the work was acquired for £150,000 by bookmaker [David Waterhouse](/source/David_Waterhouse_(bookmaker)) who brought it back to Australia. Waterhouse sold the work by auction in 1998 for the then-record price of AUD2.31 million. In 2013, the work failed to sell at auction though was sold after auction to a private collector.<ref name="Rule" /> Between 2017 and 2020 the work was on long-term loan to the [National Gallery of Australia](/source/National_Gallery_of_Australia), [Canberra](/source/Canberra). In late 2021 and early 2022 the painting was a part of the "Frederick McCubbin - Whisperings in wattle boughs" exhibition at the [Geelong Gallery](/source/Geelong_Gallery), [Geelong](/source/Geelong).

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Frederick McCubbin|state=collapsed}}
{{Heidelberg School}}

Category:1893 paintings
Category:Paintings by Frederick McCubbin
Category:Collection of the National Gallery of Australia
Category:Paintings of children
Category:Musical instruments in art
Category:Oil paintings on canvas

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bush Idyll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Idyll) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Idyll?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.