Jessie

Place Oceania: Australia
Accession Number ART94590
Collection type Art
Measurement Framed: 66 cm x 57 cm x 4.2 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas
Maker Pidgeon, William Edwin (WEP)
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1940
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Description

A colourful portrait of a glamorous young woman staring wistfully towards the viewer seated at a table resting on her arms. In her right hand she holds a letter she has just finished reading or re-reading from her husband. It is clearly written on YMCA stationary by a NSW serviceman who is on active service. The model was Jessie Anne Pidgeon (nee Graham), the artist's first wife who he married in 1933. This portrait was reproduced as the cover of 'the Australian Women's Weekly', 20 July 1940. William Edwin Pidgeon (1909-1981) was a painter, cartoonist, illustrator and newspaper critic. Working with Consolidated Press, he was appointed a war correspondant and artist in 1943. He became renowned for his cartoons signed with his initials, 'WEP'. During the Second World War many of his illustrations were published in the 'Australian Women's Weekly' and on the cover of the magazine. His humourous works conveyed the lives, personalities and conditions under which Australian troops served in Darwin, New Guinea and Borneo. During the Second World War he also contributed cartoons to the Army periodical, SALT. After the war he continued to provide illustrations for books during the 1950s, but mainly concentrated on portrait painting. He won the Archibald Prize in 1958, 1961 and again in 1968 for a portrait of fellow artist Lloyd Rees. From 1974-79 he served as the art critic for the 'Sunday Telegraph' newspaper.