William Edwin Pidgeon, aka Bill Pidgeon and Wep, (1909–1981) was an Australian painter who won the
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
three times. After his death, cartoonist and journalist
Les Tanner
Les Tanner (15 June 1927 – 23 July 2001) was an Australian cartoonist and journalist.
Life
Les Tanner was born in Redfern, Sydney. He began drawing at the age of five, at went to school at Glebe Primary School and North Newtown Intermedi ...
described him: "He was everything from serious draftsman, brilliant cartoonist, social observer, splittingly funny illustrator to multiple Archibald prizewinner.
Pidgeon was born on 7 January 1909 in
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...
, an inner suburb of Sydney.
He was the son of Frederick Castledine Pidgeon and Thirza Jessie Pidgeon, née White. He was educated at
Sydney Technical High School
Sydney Technical High School (STHS) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in Bexley, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1911 as part of Sydney Technic ...
.
Pidgeon served in the
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
Reserve between 1927-1930 (Service Number S6342).
Pidgeon was married twice. He married Jessie Graham in 1933. They had one son in 1944. The same year he moved to
Northwood, New South Wales
Northwood is a suburb on the North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 8 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government are ...
where he lived for the remainder of his life. After Jessie's death, he married Dorothy Lees and a second son was born in 1959.
From 1954 he suffered from
glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...
in both eyes. This condition led to gradual deterioration of his eyesight and necessitated six operations.
In 1965
Hazel de Berg
Hazel Estelle de Berg (21 March 1913 – 3 February 1984) was a pioneer of oral history in Australia. Between 1957 and 1984 she produced 1291 hour-long sound tape reels of interviews with writers, historians, artists, musicians and scientists a ...
interviewed him as part of an
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
project to interview Australian artists. He died 16 February 1981 aged 72 years.
Cartoonist
Les Tanner
Les Tanner (15 June 1927 – 23 July 2001) was an Australian cartoonist and journalist.
Life
Les Tanner was born in Redfern, Sydney. He began drawing at the age of five, at went to school at Glebe Primary School and North Newtown Intermedi ...
studied under Pidgeon.
Career
Pidgeon began his drawing career by doing comic illustrations for his Technical High School magazine; at 16 years of age he began a newspaper artist cadetship at ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
''. He studied for a period of 6 months under J. S. Watkins
In September 1926, at the age of 17, he had his first
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
published. ''The Trifling Triplets'' appeared in ''The Sunday News''.
He was also published regularly in the (Sydney) ''Evening News'' where he was employed as a cadet artist. He also worked in Sydney for the ''Daily Guardian'', the ''Sun'', the ''World'' and the Sydney ''Daily Telegraph''.
Editor
George Warnecke soon employed Pidgeon as an illustrator on the
Smith's Weekly
''Smith's Weekly'' was an Australian tabloid newspaper published from 1919 to 1950. It was an independent weekly published in Sydney, but read all over Australia.
History
The publication took its name from its founder and chief financer Sir J ...
. He also illustrated for ''The'' ''Telegraph in the 1930s.''
Art Reviews
Pidgeon wrote occasional art reviews for the Daily Telegraph for a number of years, and returned to this in 1974 when his eyesight was failing.
The Australian Women's Weekly
Warnecke asked Pidgeon to help produce a dummy for a new magazine
The Australian Women's Weekly
''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...
which he did. Warnecke took the idea to media proprietor
Frank Packer. The first issue was published 10 June 1933. Pidgeon commenced his career illustrating for the magazine starting with the first issue where he illustrated a short article on the
scotch terrier. Pidgeon collaborated with humourist
Lennie Lower
Leonard "Lennie" Waldemar Lower (24 September 1903 – 19 July 1947) was an Australian humorist who is still considered by many to be the comic genius of Australian journalism.
Life and career
Lower was born in Dubbo, New South Wales. His fathe ...
during the late 1930s. This collaboration contributed to the magazine achieving the highest circulation in Australia.
In and Out of Society
Pidgeon used the moniker ''Wep'' for the ''In and Out of Society'' comic strip which entered the pages of ''The Weekly'' in September 1933.
It had a theme of the emancipated woman. The leading lady dominated the strip and most of Wep's gentle humour saw the male on the receiving end.
Pidgeon used an extreme style that has been considered comic, original and modern in approach and has influenced humorous artists since.
Although the strip continued through to the 1970s and drawn by other artists, Wep's work on the strip made it a household name.
War Correspondent
Pidgeon was a
war correspondent for ''
The Australian Women's Weekly
''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...
(''Consolidated Press'').'' He visited
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory.
It is the smalle ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
,
Morotai and
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
. He produced cartoons, illustrations and paintings which were produced as covers.
He continued to provide cartoons and art work, including covers until he left full time employment with the Weekly in 1949 with an agreement to do occasional work which he did through the 1950s.
Portrait Painting
Pidgeon left The Weekly in 1949 to pursue portrait painting. Commissioned portraits became his livelihood over the next twenty-five years.
He was a member of the Journalists' Club Sydney and painted the portraits of practically every club president up to 1976. Some of his subjects included:
* Don Angel
* Arthur Crouch
* Keith Newman
*
Syd Nicholls
* Jack Paton
* Con Simons
*
Kenneth Slessor
Kenneth Adolphe Slessor (27 March 190130 June 1971) was an Australian poet, journalist and official war correspondent in World War II. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences int ...
*
E. G. Theodore, Australian politician
* John Christopher Thompson, Catholic priest and educationalist
* Sir
William Gaston Walkley, oil company director
* King Watson
* Fannie Whitely, family friend and brother of artist
Brett Whiteley
Brett Whiteley AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. He held many exhibitions ...
.
* Jerry Wilkes
He also enjoyed painting landscapes and other styles.
Archibald Prize
Pidgeon won the
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...
three times. In 1958 with a portrait of journalist Ray Walker, in 1961 with a portrait of Rabbi Dr I Porush and in 1968 with a portrait of fellow artist and friend,
Dr Lloyd Rees.
Pidgeon was a member of the Journalists' Club Sydney. His first painting of Club President Ray Walker won the 1958 prize.
The 1961 portrait of Rabbi Dr. I. Porush was commissioned for the
Great Synagogue by Randwick bookmaker and horse breeder Mr. A. Davis, to mark the Rabbi's twenty-one years of service and in memory of Davis's younger sister Ettie. Pidgeon had competed in every prize since 1949. This was his second win.
Pidgeon was one of four local artists represented on the Lane Cove Art Panel. In March 1968, at the suggestion of this panel,
Lane Cove Council
The Lane Cove Council is a local government area located on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The administrative seat of Lane Cove is located north-west of the Sydney central business district.
The Mayor of Lane ...
commissioned Pidgeon to paint a portrait of
Lloyd Rees
Lloyd Frederic Rees (17 March 18952 December 1988) was an Australian landscape painter who twice won the Wynne Prize for his landscape paintings.
Most of Rees's works are preoccupied with depicting the effects of light and emphasis is placed o ...
for their art collection. The painting was subsequently entered in the 1968 Archibald Prize competition and won.
The portrait was to hang in the Lane Cove town hall.
Publications
Pidgeon was invited to illustrate a number of books, and in some cases book covers:
* Willis, Collins. ''Rhymes of Sydney'' by Collins Wills and "Wep". First published in 1933. New edition 1982.
* Raffaello, Carboni. ''The Eureka Stockade: the consequences of some pirates wanting on quarter-deck a rebellion'', with an introduction by Herbart V. Evatt and illustrated by W. E. Pidgeon
* Simpson, Colin. ''Come Away Pealer'', 1952
acket design only* Warren, Marian. ''No Glamour in Gumboots'', 1958
* Cullota, Nino (John O'Grady) T''hey're a Weird Mob'', 1959
* Davy, G. C. ''The Christian Gentleman: a book of courtesy and social guidance for boys'', 1960
* Cullota, Nino (John O'Grady) ''Cop this Lot'', 1960
* Pearl, Cyril. ''So, you want to buy a house .. and live in it''. 1961
* Cullota, Nino (John O'Grady) ''Gone Fishin, 1962
* Pearl, Cyril. ''The Best of Lennie Lower'' presented by Cyril Pearl and Wep, 1963
* O'Grady, John. ''Aussie English: an explanation of Australian idiom'', 1965
* O'Grady, John. ''The Things they do to you'',
969
Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...
Collections
![E](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/E._G._Theodore.jpg)
Pidgeon's paintings are held in the collections of the following organisations:
* Australian War Memorial
* Government House (Sydney)
* Great Synagogue
* National Library of Australia
* National Museum of Australia
* National Portrait Gallery
* New South Wales Art Gallery
* Newcastle Art Gallery
* Parliament House
* Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
* State Library New South Wales
* St Vincent's Hospital Sydney
* Sydney Children's Hospital
* University of New England
* University of New South Wales
* University of Sydney
Legacy
In 1988 Bloomfield Galleries, New South Wales held an exhibition of Pidgeon's war paintings.
In 1997 the Journalists' Club Sydney closed. The Archibald Prize winner painting of club President Ray Walker went missing. In May 2020 the Art Gallery of New South Wales put a call out for its return.
Over 400 works of art by Pidgeon were donated to the Australian War Memorial in 2014. These included illustrated letters to his wife while working as a war correspondent and artist with Consolidated Press in New Guinea, Borneo, and Morotai in 1943–1945. It also includes his War Correspondent's Licence and Identification Card and paintings, sketches, drawings, photographs, and other ephemeral material relating to his time as a war correspondent. The collection was one of the largest donations received by the Memorial over the past ten years. The Memorial holds the most comprehensive collection of Pidgeon's work in Australia.
In 2015 the
Australian War Memorial held an exhibition ''William Edwin Pidgeon (1909-1981), war correspondent and artist'' which presented a selection of over 400 works held in the Memorial's collection.
References
External links
William Edwin Pidgeon websiteAustralian Dictionary of Biography"Illustration by Wep" tag on historical newspapers and more via TroveThe Australian Women's Weekly Covers by Wep list via TroveLane Cove Art Society WILLIAM EDWIN PIDGEON “WEP” (1909–1981)William Edwin Pidgeon interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection (sound recording) National Library of Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pidgeon, William
Archibald Prize winners
1909 births
1981 deaths
20th-century Australian painters
20th-century Australian male artists
Australian cartoonists
Australian caricaturists
Australian comics artists
Australian male painters