MS 9096
Papers of Clifton Pugh (1924 - 1990)
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Note
Series List
Box List
- Papers:
- 1943-1991
- 5.36 metres (17 boxes + 8 folio items)
- Available for reference
The papers were purchased by the Library from the Dunmoochin Foundation,
the Trustees of Clifton Pugh's Estate, in 1996.
The collection documents Pugh's career over a period of 45 years, but
unevenly. It includes correspondence, diaries, legal documents,
manuscripts, sketchbooks and sketches, exhibition catalogues, cutting
books and photographs.
There is a long series of letters to his mother, 1943-46, and letters
from a close friend, Bett Milner, 1944-76. Other correspondence and his
Dunmoochin visitors book show his close association with Labor politicians
and other public figures. Cutting books detailing his life and work from
1953 to 1990, photographs, and a long run of exhibition catalogues are the
strengths of the collection.
The Pictorial Section of the National Library holds 41 photographs of
Dunmoochin taken in 1997, and a portrait of Peter O'Shaughnessy by Clifton
Pugh.
Clifton Ernest Pugh was born in Melbourne on 17 December 1924. He was
educated at the Ivanhoe Grammar School, the Swinburne Technical College
and the National Gallery School of Victoria. A landscape painter and
portraitist, he combined a passion for painting with a great love of the
bush.
After serving with the AIF in New Guinea and with the Occupation Forces
in Japan, 1943-47, he studied with Sir William Dargie at the National
Gallery of Victoria Art School under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation
Training Scheme. His need for a quiet environment in which to paint led
him to acquire in 1951 15 acres of land at Cottles Bridge, four miles from
the nearest township of Hurstbridge, and about 30 miles from Melbourne.
The 15 acres, which he named 'Dunmoochin', grew to 200 acres as other
artists came to join them. The community legally became the Dunmoochin
Artists Society in 1953. Pugh's paintings often drew on the bush setting
of his mudbrick home and wildlife sanctuary at Cottles Bridge.
When Pugh first moved to Dunmoochin his painting did not provide an
adequate income. He worked part time to support his second wife Marlene
and their two small children, but interest in his art was rapidly growing.
His first exhibition, in Melbourne in 1955, was held with John Howley,
Donald Laycock and Lawrence Daws. The exhibition by the Group of 4, as
they called themselves, was well received.
Pugh was noted for his portraits of politicians, artists, writers,
academics and Labor figures, including his prize winning Archibald
portrait of Gough Whitlam in 1972. He had earlier won the Archibald Prize
with portraits of Sir John McEwan (1971) and R.A.G. Henderson (1965).
Equally acclaimed for his pictures of the bush, one of his best known
paintings related to Ivan Smith's radio feature The death of a wombat
(1972).
He played a major role in the development of the Australian Labor
Party's arts policy, first in Victoria in 1971 and then during the Whitlam
years. In 1973 he was appointed to the Australia Council for the Arts,
from which he resigned in 1974. With Brian Westwood, Pugh was the
Australian War Memorial's official artist at the 75th Anniversary of the
Gallipoli landing at Anzac Cove in 1990.
Pugh married three times: June Byford, Marlene Harvey and Judith Ley.
In May 1989 he set up the Dunmoochin Foundation as a perpetual
charitable trust, to provide studios for creative pursuits and to preserve
the wildlife and native plants of the land he loved. The Foundation, the
trustees of his Estate, received the bulk of his estate on his death on 14
October 1990.
Series
1. Letters to Violet Pugh, 1943-46
2. Letters of Bett Milner, 1944-76
3. Personal correspondence, 1943-91
4. Subject files, 1957-90
5. Diaries, 1970-90
6. Personal documents, 1942-86
7. Manuscripts
8. Sketch books and sketches
9. Photographs, including photographs of paintings
10. Scrapbooks of cuttings, photographs and catalogues
11. Exhibition catalogues, 1947-89
12. Newspaper cuttings, 1955-91
13. Miscellaneous
14. Other manuscripts, 1962-85
SERIES 1. Letters to Violet Pugh, 1943-46
This series of about 80 letters, written to Pugh's mother over a period
of four years from the age of eighteen, shows the development of Pugh's
artistic interests.
Pugh served in the Australian Imperial Force, 1943-47, and saw active
service in Australia and overseas. The letters, from Innisfail and
Canungra in Queensland, Dubbo, New South Wales, Wewak, PNG, the 'front
line' and Japan, were written while Pugh was serving in the AIF.
(5 folders)
SERIES 2. Letters of Bett Milner, 1944-76
Bett Milner's letters are of biographical interest. The bulk of the
letters to her friend Clifton Pugh were written in the war years, 1944-46.
The remaining letters were written during the period 1971-76. The early
letters, the first written when Milner was nineteen, all speak of her
feelings of friendship and love for Pugh. References are made to typing
Pugh's memoirs which he posted to her in instalments from the war zone.
The 1970s letters give news of her family, her husband Hugh, and the
weddings of their two children.
(2 folders)
SERIES 3. Personal Correspondence, 1943-91
Personal correspondence includes letters written to Pugh while he was on
active service in 1944, and letters witten during the period 1959-91.
Correspondents include John Olsen, John Reed, Andrew Grimwade, Gustav
Nossal, Colin Thiele, Tom Uren, Clyde Cameron, Jim Cairns, Hal Missingham,
Ivan Smith, H.C. Coombs, E. G. Whitlam, A.R. Chisholm and Ingrid Murphy.
Also in this series are letters and memorabilia from Buckingham Palace,
1975-76, where Pugh painted Prince Philip's portrait.
Folder
- 1943-44
- 1959-67
- 1968-71
- 1971-73
- 1973-75
- 1976-91
- Buckingham Palace letters , 1975-76
SERIES 4. Subject files, 1957-1990
The correspondence files which were kept by Pugh in subject order mostly
date from the 1980s.
The correspondence, both personal and business, is with art galleries,
publishers, politicians and fellow artists. There is also correspondence
on Dunmoochin, his Order of Australia, the sale of Percy Deane's
collection of cartoons to the National Library, the project he initiated
to decorate Melbourne's trams, Ivan Smith's The death of a wombat (drawings
by Pugh) and other publications, and the swimming pool he had built at
Dunmoochin.
Correspondents include John Brackenreg (Artarmon Galleries), Georgina
Bolitho (Bolitho Gallery), Judith Behan (Chapman Gallery), Stuart Gerstman
(Stuart Gerstman Galleries), Ruth Prowse (Huntley Gallery, Canberra),
Brian Johnstone (Johnstone Gallery) Jan Minchin (National Gallery of
Victoria), Judy Cassab, Richard Griffin, Keith Hounslow, Peter
O'Shaughnessy, Bernard Smith, Clyde Cameron, Doug McClelland, Sir Andrew
Grimwade, Arthur Gietzelt, Sue Elbury and Robert Sessions.
- Art galleries, 1966-89
- Bay Books, 1977, 1987
- Books, general correspondence, 1977-88
- Craftsman's Press, 1983
- Percy Deane cartoons, 1977-78
- 'Dunmoochin', 1957-89
- Environment, 1983-90
- Fine Arts Gallery, Perth, 1981-82
- General correspondence, 1984-90
- Guarantees
- Heinemann, 1984-89
- Herald and Weekly Times, 1968-78
- Hotel manager, Hurstbridge, 1987
- Hyland House, 1989
- Ink Group, 1989-90
- Insurance
- Longman Cheshire, 1985-88
- Lothian Books, 1986-88
- Macmillan, 1979-85
- Media, 1985-89
- Melbourne tram, 1978
- Methuen Australia, 1984-87
- Miscellaneous, 1977-90
- Moliver Collection
- Thomas Nelson, 1978-79
- Order of Australia, 1985
- Poetry from friends
- Political correspondence, 1977-89
- Pool, 1978-88
- The Print Creators, 1988-89
- Publications, 1962-76
- Brian Ridley manuscripts
- Schools, 1985-89
- Solicitors, 1971-76
- St Louis American exhibition, 1965-66
- Travel, 1985-88
- Wren Publishing, 1977-80
SERIES 5. Diaries, 1970-90
Includes personal diaries of Clifton and Judith Pugh containing brief appointment and
address entries. The diaries for 1971-72, 1983 and 1986 are missing. There are
also diaries of a painting trip to Lake Callabonna, S. Aust., and Cooper's
Creek in 1963, and of a painting trip with Fred Williams to Tibooburra,
NSW, in 1967. Also included are three small undated address books. Also in
the series are calendars, 1985-90, with Pugh's brief entries for
appointments and events.
(2 boxes)
SERIES 6. Personal documents, 1942-86
This small series contains documents relating to Pugh's divorce in 1971,
his discharge from the Australian Infantry Batallion in 1947, and his
awards, including The Order of Australia, 1985. Also included are
repatriation papers and passports, and a notebook containing a handwritten
list of his paintings, 1961-62.
(1 folder)
SERIES 7. Manuscripts
When Pugh travelled or went on sketching trips, he often wrote about the
places that he visited. His reports and sketches were sometimes published
in newpapers.
There are manuscripts on Windsor Castle where Pugh painted Prince
Philip, New Caledonia, Singapore, Darwin and Melville Island, London,
Alice Springs and Israel.
(1 folder)
SERIES 8. Sketch books and sketches, 1971-89
The series consists of 11 sketchbooks and 12 folders of loose sketches.
Of particular interest are a 1972 sketchbook which includes sketches for
portraits of Gough Whitlam and Don Dunstan, the Brazil sketchbook, a
collection of travel sketches, sketches from a trip to Sydney and Perth,
and a collection of illustrations for four articles.
Included in this series is a Dunmoochin visitors book containing many
interesting signatures, caricatures and drawings.
- Sketchbook, 30x41cm, including Scotland Island (30.9.89), 2
unfinished sketches of Bondi (1.10.89), Leda and the Swan, The Bowl
(27.1.90), Comedy Club, Hilton (30.1.90) and Jan Juc Beach, Torquay.
- An early outback sketchbook, 37x27cm, including outhouses and horses.
- Nine pages of drawings of the filming of Kangaroo; three
pages of studies of filming for a portrait of Clifton Pugh (25x35cm)
- Sketchbook (March 1972), 37x27cm, including portraits of Gough
Whitlam, Don Dunstan and others.
- Travel sketchbook (May 1979), 21x29cm, including sketches of Milan,
Spain, Oxford, Chartres, deer, and a garlic seller.
- Sketchpad 'Dirty Dancing', 30x42cm, including dancing, musicians.
- Sketchbook (1989), 37x31.5cm, including seven pencil sketches for a
portrait f Russ Hinze, and sketches made on trips to Sydney and Perth.
These include 'Dinner with Prue at Bilsons Restaurant'; two drawings of
a Sydney Town Hall concert, 29 March 1989, including studies of
conductor and players; studies over lunch; portrait study of Bill
Hughes; pencil studies of an emu; dinner at Penny's restaurant; three
small portrait studies of John Stringer, Rosie Kerr and Alistair
Livingstone; self portrait, 'Clifton at dinner' (6 April 1989).
- Brazil sketchbook (1989), 30 x 42.5cm, 23 coloured drawings. Also
miscellaneous sketches of London in the back of the sketchbook.
- Folio (1971), 38x38cm, poems by Harry Roskolenko, prints by Pugh and
Frank Hodgkinson.
- Sketchbook, 43.5x35cm, studies of rhinoceros, giraffe, deer, emu and
camel, possibly from a trip to China.
- Dunmoochin visitors' book, March 1972-84, 25x19cm. Drawings by Barry
Humphries, Rolf Harris, John Olsen and Rick Amor; entries from Tom Uren,
David Williamson, Harry Roskolenko, Frank Hodgkinson and John and Penny
Jost.
- Ten Australian drawings, 27x37cm, including Melville Island, Tiwi
Aboriginal grave; Todd River, Alice Springs; Simpsons Gap; Todd River,
Alice Springs.
- Travel drawings, 27x34cm, including House of Keys, Isle of Man; sex
porno shop; Richmond Bridge, Tasmania; Shere Stables; Bedouin's Bridge
and donkey carrying petrol tanks.
- Sketches for portraits of English politicians Edward Heath, Jeremy
Thorpe and Harold Wilson, 27x25cm.
- Travel drawings from a visit to China, August 1975, approx. 25x36cm,
including Pedal power, Ming tombs, and a double pertrait of Chinese
officials.
- Dunmoochin memorabilia, 25 August 1968, including two Dunmoochin
menus, 38x28cm.
- Collection of drawings of Melbourne, mainly for the Herald,
30x42cm, including Jimmy Watsons, Trotters, Tramcar Restaurant, and a
portrait of David Triaca at the Latin Cafe.
- Miscellaneous drawings including the Nolunda Pub, birds and animals,
and the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Jerusalem.
- Collection of travel sketches, France, Germany, England and Scotland,
21x30cm, including the Australian War Memorial, Villiers Bretoneux;
studies of the Pompidou Centre; studies in Germany and Scotland
including the old wine presses, barges along the Rhine; lacemaker at
Brugge and ancient stone bridge at Somerset.
- A collection of undated illustrations for four articles. The
manuscripts of the articles, possibly by Kevin Childs, are included. It
is not known if the illustrated articles were published.
1. 'An Aussie invasion of the Deep South': five ink drawings, 28x18.5cm,
including Texans, ranching, Texan and Aussie, and Mick Slocum and the
Sundowners.
2. 'The darker side of the Dallas coin': five felt pen drawings,
26.5x18.5cm, including eating and football.
3. 'N'awlins' (New Orleans): nine ink drawings, 26.5x18.5cm, street
buskers, rap dancers and musicians.
4. 'New York': six ink and felt pen drawings, 27x18.5cm, including
Ambassador Richard Woolcott, cartoon 'How to get to know your neighbour
in New York', and New York skyline.
- Collection of drawings including portraits, animals and landscapes.
Drawings include a water colour study of Rolf Harris, inscribed 'The
Vicar of Bray', 30.5x41cm (27.1.84); studies of a pelican, 43.5x35cm;
portrait studies of Neil Ralpf, Keith Walker, Sigmund Jablonski, and
Miriam Karlin (approx. 30.5x41 cm); Windsor Castle, 14x29.5cm, and first
working drawings for the Golden Fleece Shearing Dance, 57.5x38cm (1982).
- Copies of 19 drawings of nudes, 60x48cm.
- Print, 'A slumbering wombat', 62x80cm (1984).
SERIES 9. Photographs, including photographs of
Paintings
The series includes three albums of photographs of Pugh's paintings, and
a large number of loose photographs, both personal and professional. Many
of the loose photographs are duplicates of photographs in the albums.
Further photographs can be found in Series 10.
The photographs of his paintings are of the bush, its animals and birds,
its droughts and tragedies, and of people, the politicians, artists,
writers, academics and Labor figures who were his friends. The
photographs, mostly colour, are not titled or dated, except in one small
album, 12.5 x 9cm, dated December 1976. This has photographs of the Pughs
(Clifton and Judith), the Dattners and the Marginsons, including a
painting of Betty Marginson, mayor of Hawthorn. (Box 9)
There are very few family photographs among the loose photographs. They
are mainly of friends and public figures he painted, including Prince
Philip, Sir John Kerr, Prue Acton and David Williamson, and photographs
from his sketching trips and of Dunmoochin.
The loose photographs, in four boxes, are unsorted.
The folio volumes include,
- Album of photographs of paintings, 1950-1980s
- Scrapbook of photographs of paintings, 1953-78
- Scrapbook of photographs of paintings, 1959-65
SERIES 10. Scrapbooks of cuttings, catalogues and
photographs, 1953-90
The series comprises 22 scrapbooks, with cuttings and other material
about Pugh and his work. Loose cuttings can be found in Series 12.
Item
- 1953-68
- 1958-76
- 1969-71
- 1972
- 1973
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1979
- 1980
- 1981
- 1982
- 1983
- 1984
- 1985
- 1986
- 1987
- 1988
- 1989
- 1990
SERIES 11. Exhibition catalogues, 1947-89
A large collection of loose exhibition catalogues. Pugh had a
substantial creative output, with 62 one-man and major group exhibitions
in the period 1955-86. The earliest catalogue in the series is for the
1947 annual exhibition of the Shire of Ferntree Gully Arts Society. Pugh
exhibited one painting of Wewak Cove, New Guinea, with a list price of 5
guineas. Amongst the earliest catalogues are exhibitions for 'Four new
Melbourne artists' (August 1955) and 'Clifton Pugh', his first one-man
exhibition in Brisbane (May 1956). One of the latest catalogues is for
Pugh's exhibition 'Drought and flood in Australia' (1986). There is an
invitation to a 1989 exhibition 'Animals in the landscape', but no
catalogue.
(2 boxes)
SERIES 12. Newspaper cuttings, 1955-1991
The loose cuttings relate to Pugh and his work, beginning with reviews
of one of his earliest exhibitions in 1955 and ending with newspaper
coverage of his death in 1990. Cuttings include a 1973 article on Pugh's
disenchantment with the Whitlam Government's arts policy, press coverage
of his stobie pole painting 'Adam & Eve' (1984), travel reports and
sketches of Paris, Neumagen and Bruges (1986), and reports and sketches on
his walkabout in the outbook with British novelist Naomi Mitchison (1978).
Also in the cuttings is a 1991 newspaper report on the details of Pugh's
will.
(2 folders)
SERIES 13. Miscellaneous
Posters, pressed bush leaves and flowers, and a cash payment book for
ASPIC catering (1977) are included here. Several posters use paintings by
Pugh, and there is a poster of 22 people, prominent in the Arts,
advertising 'Summer Exhibition 1981'. Signatures on the back of the poster
include Brett Whiteley, Noel Counihan, George Johnson, Frank Hodgkinson
and Pugh.
(1 box)
SERIES 14. Other manuscripts, 1962-85
This series contains manuscripts and transcripts by other people
including Judith Pugh, Frank Dalby Davison, Tim Burstall and Ivan Smith.
- Typescript of The white thorntree by Frank Dalby Davison
(1975)
- Curtis Levy typescript of Dingo King (1977)
- Tim Burstall's shooting script, 'Man of iron' (1962)
- Typescript of Wombalong by Judith Pugh (1985)
- ABC television script 'Spectrum - Clifton Pugh on commitment' (1966)
- Typescript of A sliver of time by Ivan Smith (1977)
The manuscripts of four articles, possibly by Kevin Childs, 'An Aussie
invasion of the Deep South', 'The darker side of the Dallas coin',
'N'Awlins' (New Orleans), and 'New York', which were illustrated by Pugh,
are held at Series 8/20.
BOX LIST
|
Box |
Series |
Folder |
|
1 |
1 |
1-5 |
|
1 |
2 |
1-2 |
|
2 |
3 |
1-7 |
|
3 |
4 |
A - I |
|
4 |
4 |
L - W |
|
5 |
5 |
1970-82 |
|
6 |
5 |
1984-90 |
|
7 |
6 |
1-2 |
|
7 |
7 |
1 |
|
7 |
8 |
19-20 |
|
8 |
9 |
1 |
|
9-12 |
9 |
|
|
13 |
11 |
1-5 |
|
14 |
11 |
6-10 |
|
15 |
12 |
1-2 |
|
16 |
13 |
|
|
17 |
14 |
1-2, 4-6 |
|
15 |
14 |
3 |
Folio
|
1 |
8 |
1-11 |
|
2 |
8 |
12-18 |
|
3 |
9 |
2-3 |
|
4 |
10 |
1-4 |
|
5 |
10 |
5-9 |
|
6 |
10 |
10-16 |
|
7 |
10 |
17-22 |
Folio items 8/21-23 are in Map Drawer 46
|