Ivor Hele

Sir Ivor Henry Thomas Hele, CBE (13 June 1912 – 1 December 1993) was an Australian artist noted for portraiture. He was Australia's longest serving war artist and completed more commissioned works than anyone else in the history of Australian art. He was a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize.

Biography Ivor Henry Thomas Hele was born on 13 June 1912 at Edwardstown, South Australia, the youngest of four children of chaff-mill foreman Arthur Harold Hele (1885-1955) and his wife Ethel May (née Thomas) (1886-1970. His older brother was Harold Arthur Thomas and his twin older sisters were Phyllis and Beryl. The family later moved to 13 Brown Street (now part of Morphett Street), Adelaide.

He attended Westbourne Park Primary School for a short time, then Prince Alfred College, where at age eight he began art classes under James Ashton, the drawing master. He initially studied art under James Ashton at PAC and then later at Ashton’s Academy of Arts. The ten-year old “Master” Ivor Hele won first prize in the Royal Drawing Society’s Art Exhibition in London and his prize winning painting “The Bedouin” was donated by the Victor Harbor RSL for a fund-raiser in Victor Harbor in 1923. In 1924 he started studies at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts under Miss M. Kelly and completed his first year with honours.

He studied at SASAC between 1924 and 1928 and he shared the John Christie Wright Memorial Prize in 1928. In 1926 he became the youngest member to be admitted to the South Australian Society of Arts (SASA) and he regularly exhibited at the SASA Spring and Autumn exhibitions from the late 1920s. He won the prize in the category of “painting of head” in 1930 and first prize in 1931 in the SASA art competitions. Apart from his art studies (three nights a week and on Saturdays), he had a normal boy's interest in sport, and satisfactory academic results. He studied drawing and painting for six months at the academy run by Louis-François Biloul (1874–1947) in Paris, and another six months at the summer school run by (1870–1937) at Reichersbeuern, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in the Bavaria Alps. He returned to Australia early in 1930. He was to return to Paris and Bavaria three years later, as a married man.

At age 20, Hele married Millicent Mary “Jean” Berry, aged 23 years (1908-1981). She was a prominent women's basketball player and administrator. From July 1932 until January 1933, they honeymooned in Europe visiting Munich and Paris where Ivor studied under his former masters Biloul and Heymann.

In 1937, Ivor and Jean Hele leased the former Hotel Aldinga at the corner of Adey and Little roads in East Aldinga (Whites Valley) after construction of the Main South Road led to the population centre of Aldinga moving to the seaside. In October 1938, Hele purchased and renovated the property using prize money from two art competitions. It would be his home for the rest of his life – more than fifty years

In 1936, his painting The Proclamation won first prize in a competition to mark the Centenary of South Australia.

In 1938, a major work, Sturt's Reluctant Decision to Return, won the Commonwealth sesquicentenary prize of 250 guineas (perhaps AUD 20,000 in today's money). The picture was purchased by the federal government for the future National Gallery of Australia, but is rather to be found at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

War Artist Mrs. G.M. Norris, with Mrs K. D. MacDougal, examining an Exhibition of Paintings by the Official War Artist Captain Ivor Hele at the Athenaeum Gallery

Encouraged by Thomas Blamey, who had been impressed by the Sturt painting and with a promise of support for his artistic career, Hele enlisted as a private soldier in the 2nd AIF and in June 1940 sailed for the Middle East with the 2/48th Battalion, 9th Australian Division. On 9 January 1941 Blamey met him personally; he was promoted to lieutenant with responsibilities as a war artist, given a truck and batman-driver and instructed to join the 6th Division in its push to Tobruk.

In around June 1941, he joined the Military History and Information Section of the AIF, under J. L. Treloar, which had a studio in Heliopolis, which he shared with Lyndon Dadswell and John Dowie. Hele was appointed an official war artist on 11 October 1941 with the rank of captain. He returned to Australia with the 6th and 7th Divisions and, by April, was back at Aldinga, where he started his ambitious series of paintings based on his extensive portfolio of sketches and paintings, many of which had been accidentally ruined in transit. Treloar, impatient with Hele's slow progress, called on Louis McCubbin, director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, to investigate. McCubbin expressed his satisfaction and Treloar was mollified.

Subject matter Apart from the figure studies and war scenes held by the Australian War Memorial for which he is best known, and the many portraits, Hele painted many landscapes, particularly of the rugged South Australian coast, and a large number of erotic drawings. The National Gallery of Australia holds around 130 of his works, mostly minor pieces, and the Art Gallery of South Australia a few dozen. His work was occasionally seen at The Advertiser's open-air art exhibitions, and very few one-man shows: in 1943, 1945, Hele taught life drawing to many well-known Australian artists, including Jacqueline Hick, Jeffrey Smart, David Dallwitz, Marjorie Hann, Hugo Shaw, and Geoff Wilson. His portrait of Sir Lyell McEwin, longtime leader of the South Australian Legislative Council, hangs in Parliament House, Adelaide. His portrait of Professor Chapman hangs in the University of Adelaide's Chapman Theatre. The National Portrait Gallery holds his portraits of Claude Charlick, Sir Lloyd Dumas and Senator, Dame Nancy Buttfield. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds Hele's portraits of Sir Hans Heysen and archivist Lyndon Dadswell, as well as his 1938 Sturt's reluctant decision to return. The State Library of New South Wales has his 1957 self-portrait and a portrait of playwright Max Afford. His portrait of Edward Hayward hangs in the Carrick Hill mansion built for that businessman, founder of John Martin's Christmas Pageant. Portraits of Sir Donald Bradman and the Duke of Gloucester.

Archibald Prize He won Australia's most prestigious portrait prize, the Archibald Prize five times, for these works in the following years: 1951 – Laurie Thomas (held by the State Library of New South Wales) 1953 - Sir Henry Simpson Newland, CBE, DSO, MS, FRCS 1954 - Rt Hon Sir R. G. Menzies, PC, CH, QC, MP 1955 – Robert Campbell Esq. 1957 – Self Portrait

Melrose Prize He won the Melrose Prize (awarded by the Royal South Australian Society of Arts for the Art Gallery of South Australia) three times: 1935 – James Ferries Esq. (other portraits by him were of H. E. Fuller and Dr. Fenner). 1936 - H. Brewster Jones Esq. 1939 - Jean Hele.

Honours Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), 1954 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1969 Knight Bachelor (Kt), 1983 A bronze bust of Hele by his niece Marcia Rankin, based on a photograph by C. T. Halmarick, is held by the Australian War Memorial.