painter, Melbourne. Reviewing the Victorian Academy of Art 1872 exhibition the Age noted: 'William the Silent on his sick bed is a Dutch historical drawing by Mr Cornelius Cardinal. The details of the old-fashioned chamber are well carried out; the expression on the face of the bed-ridden man is full of anxious eagerness; but a little more softness imparted to the folds of the drapery, and a closer attention to the anatomical proportions of the human frame, would have materially improved the picture. In the drawing – The Count of Flanders, surprised in the height of revelry by his neglected wife and children – by the same artist, the grouping is excellent, and the expression of scorn and discomfiture, though perhaps a little exaggerated, is well portrayed’ ( Age , 16 March 1872). The following year, at the third annual exhibition of the VAA, the same paper noted: 'One great drawback to the absolute success of the exhibition is the paucity of figure subjects, this class being represented only by Mr Chester Earles and Mr Cardinal’ ( Age 24 March 1873).

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1999

Last updated:

2011