Unknown artist
Mr and Mrs Robert Hill Kinnear and their daughter, Rosalie, 1851
oil on canvas
124.5cm x 110cm
Gift of Mrs. Eva Kinnear, 1958
Visual description:
This family portrait of a man, woman, and child figures is set in a in a tidy interior room with warm, soft lighting. The room is carpeted, with framed pictures on the wall – suggesting a formal sitting room. On the left, the man is standing beside a chair, wearing white trousers, a long black riding-style coat and tall black boots. At the centre, the woman is seated at a small table; her hand rests on an open book with a quill and ink nearby and she is holding a wilted rose. She is dressed in black, with a white shirt collar and sleeves visible below her dress, with her dark hair neatly pinned. On the right, a child wearing a bright red and white dress sits on a soft upholstered chair. One leg is tucked up on the chair slightly informally, and the other hanging down to the floor. Her white sock and black shoe is missing from dangling leg: they are resting on the patterned carpet in front of her.
Curator’s insights:
Rosalie (née Korn) and Robert Kinnear emigrated to Australia from Scotland in 1851, settling in Echuca where Robert served as a Councillor and Court Magistrate.
This family portrait includes their young daughter Rosalie, who died at age four from diphtheria, a major cause of death in the 19th century. Mrs Kinnear is clothed in half mourning costume, which suggest that the painting may have been completed posthumously as a memorial to their daughter. Other allusions to the death of Rosalie include her bare foot, with one shoe and sock on the floor - a symbol of one foot in this life and one in the next – and the withered flower held by Mrs Kinnear, apparently plucked from the vase on the table.
Kinnear was an extensive art collector and commissioned numerous works, including the monumental narrative painting The Golden Wedding (1883) by German artist Carl Hoff, also now in the collection of Bendigo Art Gallery.