Ernest Buckmaster Mrs H Buckmaster

The subject of this portrait by Ernest Buckmaster is his mother, Mrs Harry Amos Buckmaster, also known as Letitia Martha (nee Chandler, 1873-1953). Originally the title of the work was incorrectly listed as Mrs E Buckmaster. The painting is now in the collection of the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale, NSW, with the title Portrait of the artist’s mother.

It is one of several Archibald portraits of Letitia by her eldest son, each a tender homage to the fortitude of a woman who had borne 11 children. As a critic for The Bulletin observed, ‘His old lady in black is a three-volume novel in paint, and well written too’.