Cecil Hartt

Cecil Lawrence Hartt (15 July 1884 – ''c''. 17 May 1930) was an Australian cartoonist and caricaturist. As a wartime artist, he popularised the concept of the Australian digger as independent, easy-going and disrespectful of authority, with a sardonic attitude to life. He was the first artist to be employed by ''Smith's Weekly'' in 1919, continuing in that role until his death in 1930. Over his career Hartt produced a large number of cartoons on a broad range of subjects and themes; his drawings encompassed political, social and military topics and were admired for their observational humour and the quality of his character portraits. He mainly drew single-panel cartoons, but his body of work also includes early examples of Australian comic strips. Hartt was the first president of the Australian Black and White Artists' Club, formed in July 1924 (now the Australian Cartoonists' Association).

Biography

Early life

Cecil Hartt was born Cyril Lawrence Hartt on 16 July 1884 at Prahran in inner suburban Melbourne, the son of James Hartt and Alice (''née'' Lawrence), one of seven children in the family.Family records (per Ancestry.com). His given name, Cyril, was soon abandoned and from an early age he was known as Cecil, or informally 'Cec'.

In about 1887, James Hartt took a job as a bookkeeper at Alfred Billson's Anglo-Australian Brewery at Beechworth, in north-east Victoria. In March 1897, Hartt resigned from his position "to seek to better his fortunes in Western Australia". By December 1897, James Hartt was living in Barrack-street in Perth.

By about 1901, the Hartt family had returned to north-east Victoria, living at Tallangatta near Albury-Wodonga, with James Hartt working as the head bookkeeper in Dyring and Dyring's general merchandise store. Cecil's mother died in January 1906 at Tallangatta after having "been in indifferent health for some time". In April 1906, Cecil's father left Tallangatta for Melbourne after Dyring's store changed hands. His father remarried in 1907.

A freelance artist

By 1908, Cecil Hartt was working as a clerk at the Yarra Bend Asylum, in the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield.Life's Tragic Side: Decapitated
''Weekly Times'' (Melbourne), 13 June 1908, page 31. During this period, Hartt began taking instruction in drawing from Alex Sass, an older artist who was working as a cartoonist for ''Melbourne Punch''.Cecil Hartt: An Australian Soldier Artist
''The Lone Hand'', Vol. 7 No. 3, 1 February 1917, page 147. Hartt also studied art in Melbourne with the artist Harold Gye.Jessica Milner Davis & Lindsay Foyle (2017), 'The Satirist, the Larrikin and the Politician: An Australian Perspective on Satire and Politics', Chapter 1 of J. Milner Davis (ed.), ''Satire and Politics: The Interplay of Heritage and Practice'', Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, , pages 15-16. In 1908, Hartt had his first drawing published in ''Comments'', a short-lived Melbourne journal.Our Contemporaries
''Smith's Weekly'' (Sydney), 6 May 1922, page 22. He also contributed to Randolph Bedford's mining and literary journal, ''The Clarion'' (at that time Melbourne's answer to ''The Bulletin'').Former ACA Prez Cec Hart
by Lindsay Foyle & Nat Karmichael, ''Inkspot'', 14 October 2016, page 7.

Late in the morning on 3 June 1908, near Auburn railway station, James Hartt took his own life by placing his head on the rail as a train approached. The train-driver was alerted and applied the brakes, but was unable to stop in time. Hartt was decapitated; his remains were removed to the morgue where it was Cecil who had to identify his father's mutilated body. James Hartt had been living in Caulfield and had been unemployed for about nine weeks before his suicide.

During the period working as a clerk at the Yarra Bend Asylum, Hartt had a drawing accepted by '' The Bulletin'' magazine. Shortly afterwards, in January 1909, he relocated to Sydney. In July 1909, Cecil Hartt married Ruby Manners in the Newcastle suburb of Hamilton and a son, named Lawrence, was born to the couple in March 1910.In Divorce
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 3 March 1923, page 9. In 1911, Hartt was living in Walenore-avenue, Newtown. In January 1912, Hartt was elected as one of the two vice-presidents of the Australian Writers' and Artists' Union. He also served as a union delegate to the Labor Council. In 1913, Hartt was living in Hunter-street, Sydney, working as a freelance artist. During the period 1911 to 1913, he had cartoons accepted for the Sydney magazine ''The Comic Australian''.

In about 1913, Hartt met Henry Lawson and the two became close friends. Hartt and Lawson had common connections with ''The Bulletin'', ''The Australian Worker'' newspaper and the Australian Writers' and Artists' Union. They were a part of a wider social group of Sydney-based writers and artists, who often met for drinking sessions at pubs such as the Newcastle Hotel, at the corner of George and Essex streets, and the Assembly Hotel, at the corner of Hunter and Phillip streets.On the Track
written by Alexander Vennard ('Frank Reid'; 'Bill Bowyang'), ''Townsville Daily Bulletin'', 4 June 1930, page 14.

From 1913 to early 1915, when he enlisted in the army, Hartt contributed political cartoons to ''The Worker'' newspaper and its successor, ''The Australian Worker''. Hartt's cartoons were also being published in ''The Bulletin'' prior to and after his enlistment in March 1915. In 1915, Hartt was part of a group called the Newspaper Cartoonists' Association of New South Wales which published ''Sydneyites: As we see ’em 1913-14-15'', a book of "representative citizens" of Sydney (all men), each image combining a drawing with a photograph of the subject's head. Hartt contributed nineteen drawings to the publication and was listed as being a cartoonist from ''The Bulletin''.

Military service

Hartt's occupation was recorded as a cartoonist when he enlisted in the army, aged 30. His next of kin was recorded as his wife Ruby, living on Pittwater Road in Dee Why, a northern beach suburb of Sydney. Hartt enlisted at Liverpool in Sydney in March 1915, shortly after the outbreak of World War I and was placed in B Company of the 18th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force. In June he embarked for overseas service.World War I service record:

The 18th Battalion AIF was sent to Gallipoli. On 27 August 1915, Hartt was wounded in left ankle by a machine-gun bullet during a disastrous charge from Chocolate Hill against Turkish forces on Hill 60. While he was crawling back to safety, Hartt was struck in the right thigh by shrapnel.Artist and Soldier
''Port Adelaide News'', 8 November 1918, page 5. He was evacuated to Mudros Harbour on Lemnos and then to Heliopolis near Cairo. Three weeks later, he was transferred to England and admitted to the Military Hospital in Reading.

Hartt was hospitalised for five months and his ankle wound left him with a permanent limp. In November 1915, he was taken off active service and placed on a supernumerary list of non-commissioned officers. Hartt remained in England until April 1918 working in the administration of military records at A.I.F. headquarters in London, where he rose to the rank of corporal (and later acting staff-sergeant).

In London, Hartt contributed cartoons to '' Bystander'', ''The Graphic'', ''The Passing Show'' and ''London Opinion'' magazines. He was one of six Australian artists resident in England at that time who contributed drawings for the souvenir programme of an exhibition game of Australian Rules football held in October 1916 in London between two teams of Australian servicemen.

In London, Hartt began working on a collection of his cartoons and drawings about Australian soldiers, which he published as ''Humorosities'' in 1917. Hartt's book, which sold for a shilling a copy, was a great success with over 60,000 copies being sold in Great Britain. His drawings in ''Humorosities'' portrayed the Australian 'digger' as self-reliant, easy-going and disrespectful of authority, "more interested in avoiding tedious rules than in obedient conformity".Lindesay (1979), page 26. Hartt's book of drawings was often purchased by Australian soldiers as a memento of their military experience. After the publication of ''Humorosities,'' Hartt received a letter from John Fortescue, the King's librarian at Windsor Castle, thanking him for a copy Hartt had sent to him. Fortescue described the volume as "a welcome addition to the literature of the war, and doubly welcome as an Australian contribution". He invited Hartt to send "an original sketch or two... with the prices marked" with a view to their inclusion in "the King's collection of drawings".Art and Camouflage: Australians' War Work
''The Argus'' (Melbourne), 16 July 1918, page 5. ''Humorosities'' was also sold in Australia, distributed by Gordon and Gotch Ltd.

Hartt returned to Australia aboard the ''H.M.A.T. Marathon'', arriving in Sydney in June 1918. During the journey to Australia, Hartt and one of his comrades issued regular editions of a one-page news-sheet called ''The Bonzer Times''. Due to a paper shortage, it was published as a single copy, posted outside the orderly room so all on board could read it, and "its smartly-written descriptions of doings on board kept a crowd round it all day long". Hartt was discharged from the army on 23 July 1918 "in consequence of medical unfitness".

''Smith's Weekly''

The writer Frank Reid had served with Hartt in the 18th Battalion at Gallipoli. After Reid returned to Australia from the Middle East in October 1918, he went to the ''Bulletin'' office "to collect a tidy cheque for scores of contributions" he had sent while on military service overseas. While he was there, Reid encountered Cecil Hartt, "limping on a walking stick". Hartt was in the ''Bulletin'' office "making enquiries about the possibilities of working up an Australian edition of 'The Passing Show', a humorous London weekly, but somehow he didn't get much encouragement from the big newsagents, and the idea was dropped".World War I service record:

After his return to Sydney, Hartt was living with his wife Ruby in their "neat little bungalow" at Dee Why. His friend and colleague, Frank Reid, was living at Collaroy, so "they saw a great deal of each other". Hartt went back to freelance drawing, but he found it hard to make a living. In 1918, ''The Bulletin'' was the only publication in Sydney purchasing cartoons "and if Cecil made 30/- a week he was lucky".

By the close of 1918, it had become known that Joynton Smith was in the process of establishing a new weekly newspaper in Sydney, to be named ''Smith's Weekly''. Smith engaged theatrical publicist Claude McKay and journalist Clyde Packer in the new venture, with J. F. Archibald of ''The Bulletin'' as consulting editor. Advertisements seeking submissions from writers and artists were published in December 1918. Hartt saw an opening for a staff job and applied, becoming the first artist engaged by the new publication.'Smith's' Gigantic Easter Egg: History of 'Smith's' Art Supremacy
''Smith's Weekly'' (Sydney), 20 April 1935, page 21. Hartt's drawing style and humour were consistent with the populist left-wing ethos of ''Smith's Weekly'', which set a radical nationalist tone and a disrespect of authority. The weekly newspaper published high quality cartoons on a broad range of subjects.

An important target audience for the ''Smith's Weekly'' was returned soldiers whose rights and causes the publication consistently championed, made apparent in the first issue when Joynton Smith described the returned digger as "the cream of our country's manhood 'who''has become the sport of the politician". Hartt's 'More Digger Stories', featuring his distinctive squat characters, first appeared in the fourth issue of ''Smith's Weekly'' in late March 1919 and were a regular feature until March 1920, with others appearing irregularly after that. The cartoons from 'More Digger Stories' proved to be "exceedingly popular" and were later collected in publications (''Diggerettes'' in 1919 and ''More Diggerettes'' in 1920), which sold for one shilling each.

From July 1919 until October 1924, ''Smith's Weekly'' featured a regular column called the "Sailors' and Soldiers' Parliament" that covered issues and stories specific to returned servicemen. This column often featured Hartt's 'Diggerette' cartoons. In September 1924, the newspaper started a regular feature called "Unofficial History of the A.I.F." in which "every Digger" was invited "to tell the real story of the A.I.F." Drawings by Hartt on themes related to the military or returned servicemen were occasionally used in this column (some rendered as his 'Diggerette' figures). From November 1925 to March 1926, the banner used for the "Unofficial History of the A.I.F." column featured 'Diggerette' figures drawn by Hartt (two versions). Hartt continued to include Digger cartoons within his wider body of work up until his death in May 1930.

One of the regular characters created by Hartt was 'Dummy', the hapless clown, described as "Australia's national figure of pathos" who "carries all the burdens and woes of our beloved country".Creating a National Figure
''Smith's Weekly'' (Sydney), 5 March 1927, page 12. Dummy made his first appearance in the 26 April 1919 edition of ''Smith's Weekly'', in response to the public health measures imposed by the New South Wales Minister of Public Health to combat the third wave of the influenza pandemic. The character was frequently used by Hartt to denote the "long suffering" Everyman, the "poor witless creature" who was "the butt of every politician and tax-gatherer, victim of every unscrupulous tradesman".Ask Cecil He Knows Everything - Now
''Smith's Weekly'' (Sydney), 31 May 1930, page 9. Before very long, the concept of 'Dummy' took on a life of its own, being adopted as a recurring motif at ''Smith's Weekly'' by journalists, poets and other artists (alongside Hartt's own depictions of the character). At the inaugural Artists' Masquerade Ball held at Sydney Town Hall on 21 August 1922, Hartt attended the event dressed as his own 'Dummy' character.

Hartt had a semi-regular feature on page four of ''Smith's Weekly'' that began in July 1922 and finished in March 1925. Entitled 'All the News as seen by Cecil L. Hartt' and 'The World as seen by Cecil L. Hartt', the column presented the cartoonist's satirical responses to topical issues and news stories. In late 1924, Hartt created a comic strip featuring caricatures of the Prime Minister Stanley Bruce, Bruce's coalition partner Earl Page and the Minister for Trade and Customs, Herbert Pratten. The strip was a regular feature from December 1924 until March 1925 and often featured the wowserish 'Auntie Pratten' and a top-hatted Bruce. Hartt followed this with the 'Ask Bill, He Knows Everything' comic strip, featuring the pontificating character Bill and his mates Gus and Steve. 'Ask Bill' first appeared in April 1925 and was a regular feature of ''Smith's Weekly'' until Hartt's death in 1930. The original inspiration for 'Bill' was said to be Billy Bournes, a war-time Labor agitator and anti-conscriptionist who eventually went to live in Tennant Creek.

Hartt also created the down-and-out