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NLA News - home April 2003 Volume XIII Number 7
Prime Ministers: Portrayed i n the Pictures Collection
Pen and ink caricature drawing of Malcolm Fraser and  John Howard  1983 by Geoff Pryor

Geoff Pryor (b.1944)
‘My Treasurer Will Tell You!—Labor’s Going to Clean Out Your Bank Deposits!’ [Malcolm Fraser, John Howard]  1983
pen and ink drawing on paper; image 11.8 x 8.9 cm on sheet 21.4 x 35.8 cm
In: Pryor Collection of Cartoons and Drawings, 1978–1988
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23135292

 

In his third and final instalment on prime ministers, Barry York uncovers a wealth of images in the Pictures Collection

The National Library’s Pictures Collection amasses paintings, drawings, prints and photographs primarily for their informational value and for their importance as historical documents. The collection originated in the early 1900s, when pictorial items were acquired for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, from which the National Library evolved. The Pictures Collection has images of every Australian prime minister from Edmund Barton to John Howard. There are more than 300 pictures of Malcolm Fraser, more than 400 of Bob Hawke, 180 of Paul Keating and 253 of John Howard. The Pictures Collection has well over a thousand images relating to Australian prime ministers.

The majority of the pictorial items on Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard are cartoons and caricatures by artists such as John Spooner, Geoff Pryor, Larry Pickering, Ward O’Neill and Peter Nicholson. Fraser was a member of parliament for 20 years before serving as prime minister from 11 November 1975 to 11 March 1983. Hawke was a prominent figure in national life for many years prior to becoming prime minister in 1983, especially during the 1970s when he was president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and of the Australian Labor Party, and Keating was a member for 22 years before serving as prime minister from 20 December 1991 to 11 March 1996. Howard, the current prime minister, was in parliament for 18 years before becoming prime minister on 11 March 1996. Cartoonists had a long time in which to get stuck into them!

The biggest collection of cartoon art, that of Geoff Pryor, consists of about 2500 cartoons and drawings. Caricatures and cartoons of prime ministers in the collection date back to Barton and include the work of artists such as Herbert Cotton, Leslie Ward, Livingston Hopkins, C.W. Readett, John Chinner, Lindsay Langtry, Norman Lindsay, Fred May, Will Donald, Stan Cross, Alex Gurney, John Frith, Tom Glover, David Lowe, Percy Fearon, Samuel Wells, Claude Marquet, Bill Mahony and George Taylor. Billy Hughes, prime minister from 27 October 1915 to 9 February 1923, was a special target of newspaper artists, and the Library holds more than 30 contemporary caricatures and cartoons of which he is the feature.

Terracotta portrait bust of Edmund Barton, the federal leader c.1900 on a blue background by Nelson Illingworth

Nelson Illingworth (1862–1926)
Portrait Bust of Edmund Barton, the Federal Leader c.1900
terracotta; height 31.8 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an6300295

 

The pictorial items on the prime ministers take many forms. In addition to cartoons and caricatures, there are portraits and objects of realia, such as busts and plaques. Realia add a wonderful and occasionally wacky dimension to the collection. The fact that the National Library of Australia has a terracotta bust of Barton, by sculptor Nelson Illingworth, is not surprising, but few would expect to find a gold commemorative medallion presented to Barton by Pope Leo XIII in 1902. And there are also quite a few briefcases once owned by prime ministers, such as Deakin, Hughes and McMahon. My favourite item of realia is the certificate presented to Hughes in 1927 by the Limbless Soldiers’ Association for his success in the Ugly Men’s Competition.

Portraits form a significant proportion of the Pictures Collection and exist in various media: photographs, lithographs, watercolours and drawings in ink, charcoal and pencil. Most of the portraits of prime ministers are photographs, as studio photography was well established by the time of Federation. Prime ministerial photographers in the collection include late nineteenth-century and early to mid-twentieth- century figures such as B.C. Boake, Alexander McDonald, Fred Monteath, Alexander Carlisle, John Dwyer, Spencer Shier, Howard Harris, Charles Luke, L.J. Dywer, Alexander Collingridge, F.R. Peterson, E.A. Cox, Sidney Riley and Edwin Adamson. There are several photos taken by the Australian News and Information Bureau after World War II, and the Library’s own photographic staff has captured images of more recent prime ministers. Other photographers who have ‘shot’ postwar prime ministers include Athol Shmith, Maxwell Porteous, Heidi Smith, David Moore, Peter West, Garry Hanson, Gary Ede and Terry Milligan.

Oil painting portrait of the Right Hon. W.M. Hughes  c.1920 by Sir James Guthrie

Sir James Guthrie (1859–1930)
Portrait of The Right Hon. W.M. Hughes  c.1920
oil on canvas; 88.6 x 65.2 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an2288496

 

Additional forms of portraiture in the collection tend to be charcoal and chalk or pen and ink drawings—Ivor Hele and Frank Salisbury being examples of the former and Charles Mere the latter. James Guthrie’s portrait of Hughes (1920) is a rare prime ministerial portrait painted in oils.

As one would expect, the smallest number of portraits held are those of men who were prime minister for brief periods, such as John Watson, who held the post for three months and 21 days in 1904; Earle Page (20 days in 1939); Arthur Fadden (one month and nine days in 1941), Francis Forde (eight days in 1945) and John McEwen (23 days, 1967–68). The largest number relate to Australia’s first prime minister, Edmund Barton; his successor, Alfred Deakin; the longest serving prime minister, Robert Menzies; and the current prime minister, John Howard. Ten or more portraits each are held of George Reid, Andrew Fisher, James Scullin, John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Harold Holt, Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke.

In general, prime ministerial portraits highlight the period in which the individual flourished politically, rarely exceeding a 20-year frame. However, the Barton and Deakin portraits provide images of the different stages in each individual’s life, covering a span from 1870 to 1910. We see the subjects as children, as young adults, as politicians and as prime ministers—and we even see photographs of Deakin’s funeral procession in 1919. In some cases, it is fascinating to see prime ministers as children, such as the 1915 sepia-toned photograph of John Gorton with his mother, Alice, and David Moore’s photograph of Fraser as a schoolboy, taken in 1940.

A black and White photograph of the funeral of The Honourable Alfred Deakin leaving Federal Parliament House, 9 October 1919

The funeral of The Honourable Alfred Deakin leaving Federal Parliament House, 9 October 1919
gelatin silver photograph; 42.7 x 57.2 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23302312

 

 

The Library’s three principal special collections, Manuscript, Oral History and Pictures, clearly complement one another and supply different layers or dimensions to the understanding of individual prime ministers. John Gorton and William McMahon are two for whom the Library holds significant material across the collections. We can read their personal papers in the Manuscript Collection, hear their voices in Oral History and see images of them at different stages of their lives and careers in the Pictures Collection. Gorton was first elected to Parliament on 24 February 1968, and McMahon on 10 December 1949. Gorton served as prime minister from 10 January 1968 to 10 March 1971, and McMahon from 10 March 1971 to 5 December 1972. Gorton retired from Parliament in November 1975 and McMahon in January 1982. The Library’s Manuscript Collection has personal papers of both men, respectively taking up six metres and 80 metres of shelf space. The Oral History Collection has five taped interviews with Gorton and four with McMahon, and the Pictures Collection has seven images of Gorton and nine of McMahon.

It is worth looking at the pictorial holdings for both men as they are indicative of the range of formats held on other prime ministers as well. These are basically caricatures, cartoons, realia and portraits—the latter taking the form of posed and official photographs of the individual alone, images from wider photographic collections, photographs in which the prime ministerial subject is secondary, and drawings.

McMahon’s physical appearance made him, like Hughes, a favoured target of caricaturists, and the Library holds Larry Pickering’s 1973 crayon caricature as well as Geoff Pryor’s 1983 ‘parliamentary gravy train’ cartoon, in which McMahon (and Fraser and Philip Lynch) are passengers, approaching ‘weigh-bridge inspector’ Bob Hawke. Another Pryor cartoon, from 1982, shows McMahon with other conservative politicians opposing the legalisation of marijuana. Surprisingly, no caricatures of Gorton show up on the catalogue. Realia is held for McMahon in the form of two plastic briefcases he used between 1967 and 1971.

sepia-toned photograph of  a portrait of John Gorton, when a child, with his mother Alice]  [c.1915]

 [Portrait of John Gorton, When a Child, with His Mother Alice]  [c.1915]
sepia-toned photograph;
50.6 x 40.4 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23324537

 

As with the prime ministerial pictorial holdings in general, portraits are the main category. Apart from Ivor Hele’s charcoal and chalk portrait of McMahon, the portraits of Gorton and McMahon are photographs. Two official, posed, head-and-shoulders photographs of McMahon show him as the new member for Lowe in 1950, and as prime minister in 1971. There is also an Australian News and Information Bureau photo of him as a secondary figure with Richard Casey and others meeting the Commissioner Designate for Malaya in the 1950s.

There are seven portraits of Gorton, the earliest being the photo of him as a child circa 1915. An official head-and-shoulders shot, presumably taken for the Parliamentary Handbook, shows him circa 1968. There is also an Australian News and Information Bureau photo of him as a secondary figure on the occasion of the Indian High Commissioner’s presentation of credentials to Governor-General Sir William Slim in the 1950s. Gorton’s image in this photo is clear enough, and useful enough, for it to be catalogued with Gorton as a subject. The other Gorton photographs come from wider collections. Heidi Smith’s 1994 collection of eminent Australians includes Sir John and Lady Gorton; Judith Ahern’s photos of the Tamworth Country Music Festival include a shot of Gorton in the mid-1980s; a collection of colour photos taken at the opening of the About Face exhibition of the National Portrait Gallery include Gorton, Whitlam and Keating; and John Mulligan’s photographic collection of social and cultural life in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s includes an image of Gorton, as prime minister, visiting Waverley College.

Several of the prime ministerial images in the Pictures Collection were originally received by the Library as part of manuscript collections.

Anyone with Internet access can view many of the Pictures Collection’s holdings at: www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/

The Barton collection can be viewed at: www.nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms51

BARRY YORK is a researcher and writer. His email address is: garocon@pcug.org.au

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