The prize by Kim E Anderson

The prestigious Australian Archibald Prize for portraiture has had its share of controversy, with censure for the appropriateness of subject, residency of the artist, gender of the artist, and in 2004 the challenge to Craig Ruddy’s image of David Gulpilil was on the basis that it was a charcoal sketch rather than a painting. But the most outstanding case of all was the 1943 court challenge to William Dobell’s portrait of Joshua Smith on the grounds that his painting was a caricature rather than a portrait.

Anderson tells the story of the relationship of the two men, both artists, and how the case brought by more traditional artists, Mary Edwards and Joseph Wolinski, members of the Royal Art Society, on the grounds that Dobell’s portrait was a distorted and caricatured form, led to a questioning of the authenticity of modern art, and the relationship of realism to art in general.

The Prize will be of interest to students of modern art, and people interested in the history of Australian art more generally. The story is also a powerful depiction of societal attitudes towards homosexuality during that period of history, and reveals how men had to hide their feelings behind a veneer of respectability and convention. Unfortunately for Joshua, a man mercilessly controlled by his mother, the spirit of independence that Dobell so powerfully captured in his portrait became reduced to timid stubbornness. It is a very sad love story.

Themes: Archibald Prize, Australian art, Court case, portraiture, LGBQTI+.

Helen Eddy