William Beckwith McInnes

William Beckwith McInnes studied at National Gallery of Victoria Art School. Training under Frederick McCubbin is recorded. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Work by William Beckwith McInnes is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Portrait Gallery and Art Gallery of New South Wales. Distinctions recorded are Archibald Prize and Wynne Prize.

• Born — 18 May 1889 • Birthplace — St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria • Died — 9 November 1939 • Place of death — Melbourne, Victoria • Known for — portraits • Spouse — Violet Murial Musgrave (1915–39) • Awards — Archibald Prize, 7 times between 1921–1939; Wynne Prize (1921)

McInnes was born in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, to Malcolm McInnes and his wife Alice Agnes, née Beckwith. Despite lack of family artistic tradition, he was keen to draw from the time he could hold a pencil. In 1903, at 14 years of age, he enrolled in the drawing school of the National Gallery of Victoria under Frederick McCubbin. Later he moved up to the painting school under Lindsay Bernard Hall.

Amongst the many portraits by McInnes were those of the surgeons Archibald Watson and Wood Jones. McInnes' artwork is featured at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of NSW. In addition, McInnes has painted a variety of important people in Australian history including officials and aristocratic families.

McInnes suffered from an imperfect heart all his life. On 30 November 1937 around midnight the car he was driving struck and killed a pedestrian, James Lowrey, on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. At the inquest evidence was brought forward that a drug (Luminal) he was taking for the condition could have affected his driving and been responsible for his staggering and not remembering details of the accident. He was not convicted of any offence.