Ernest Buckmaster Mr KF McCrae

Although the portrait was originally listed under the title Mr JF McCrae, the subject of this painting by Ernest Buckmaster is former athlete Kenneth Farquhar McCrae (1869–1959), a cousin of poet and artist Hugh McCrae (1876–1958) and the grandson of artist Georgiana McCrae (1804–1890).

In 1893, Ken McCrae had won the 880 yard event at the Australasian Championships in Melbourne beating Edwin Flack, the runner considered Australia’s first Olympian, who won the 800-metre sprint at the first Olympic Games of the modern era in Athens in 1896.