Herbert Beecroft Miniature (Title unknown)

English-born Lawrence Herbert Beecroft studied at the Reading School of Art and Reading University Extension College, training as a lithographer and book illustrator. After emigrating to Australia in 1905, he established himself as a ‘lightning cartoonist’ in Sydney, through a series of stage acts perfected at London’s Crystal Palace. Making rapid sketches in colour before a live audience, his performance included amusing verbal commentary and lectures, merging the visual pleasures offered by fine art with populist entertainment, a trait in which the Archibald Prize would excel.

Although we know Beecroft entered a watercolour miniature in the inaugural Archibald Prize, his original entry was not titled and there are no details of its actual size or any details of the sitter. However, it is highly probable that it was the miniature of JF Archibald (1856–1919), founder of The Bulletin magazine and the person who endowed the prize, that is now in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.