23 Facts About Ernest Buckmaster

Ernest William Buckmaster was an Australian artist born in Victoria.

Ernest Buckmaster won the Archibald Prize in 1932 with a portrait of Sir William Irvine.

Ernest Buckmaster served as an Australian war artist during World War II.

Ernest Buckmaster attended a state primary school at Box Hill where he showed drawing skills at an early age.

Ernest Buckmaster's life was challenged on enough occasions, having nearly drowned as a child, attacked by a cow, chased by a bull, almost fell from a roof, and motor vehicle incidents.

Ernest Buckmaster studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1918 to 1924.

Ernest Buckmaster emerged as an accomplished painter of traditional portraits, still lifes and landscapes with a substantial work-rate and output.

Ernest Buckmaster's work is popular in Australia and New Zealand where public art galleries and private collectors hold examples of his paintings.

Ernest Buckmaster disliked modern art, criticising it in his book and in letters to newspapers, saying 'This kind of art must not be seen, it seems, in case young students are tempted to try it themselves'.

Ernest Buckmaster continued to be associated with the VAS as a councillor and exhibitor ; Buckmaster resigned at one stage from VAS, a difference of judgements and values of art juries.

Ernest Buckmaster's Archibald prize-winning portrait took fourteen sittings with the subject before it was finished, about 15 hours.

Ernest Buckmaster had been a competitor for the Prize several times previous, including a self-portrait submitted for 1927.

Ernest Buckmaster was a foundation member of the Australian Academy of Art.

Ernest Buckmaster made two extended trips to New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s at the invitation of Henry Kelliher, Managing Director of Dominion Breweries in Auckland, who had seen Ernest Buckmaster's 1944 exhibition at the David Jones Gallery, Sydney.

Aged 38, Ernest Buckmaster married Dorothy Laura Cook on Wednesday 12 February 1936 at the chapel of the Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne.

Now living at Riddell Parade, Elsternwick, Melbourne, after two years, Ernest Buckmaster was divorced by his wife on Monday 14 November 1938 on the grounds of repeated acts of misconduct.

Ernest Buckmaster then married Florence Botting in Melbourne in February 1939.

Ernest Buckmaster died on Friday 18 October 1968 at his home at Warrandyte.

Ernest Buckmaster was survived by his wife Florence and their five children.

Ernest Buckmaster's self-portrait, which was a finalist in the 1936 Archibald Prize, is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Ernest Buckmaster's portraits included etcher John Shirlow, in oil.

Buckmaster's autobiography So far: The art of Ernest Buckmaster was published in 1951.

Some of Ernest Buckmaster's work is on extended loan from his family to the 1883 Hotel Windsor in Melbourne.