William Pidgeon

William Edwin Pidgeon, known as Bill Pidgeon and 'Wep', (7 January 1909 – 16 February 1981) was an Australian artist, known as an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist, as well as a painter who won the Archibald Prize three times. He was most active as a black-and-white artist in Sydney from the mid-1920s, working as a cartoonist and illustrator for a variety of newspapers. In 1933 Pidgeon was involved in the establishment of The Australian Women's Weekly and was closely involved with the magazine until the late 1940s, his work including the creation of the long-standing comic strip 'In and Out of Society' and producing seventy cover illustrations for the magazine. During World War II he worked as a war correspondent for the parent company, Consolidated Press Ltd. From the 1950s Pigeon focussed on painting and was widely recognised for his skills as a portrait painter.

Biography

Early years

William Edwin Pidgeon was born on 7 January 1909 in Paddington, an inner Sydney suburb, the younger of two sons of Frederick Castledine Pidgeon, a maker of leaded-windows, and his wife Thirza Jessie (née White). His father died in 1913 when Bill was aged four years, following which the family moved into his maternal grandfather's home in nearby Gurner Street before later returning to their home in Glenmore Road, Paddington.

Bill Pidgeon was schooled at Glenmore Road Public School and later at Darlinghurst Public School. He was awarded a Qualifying Certificate in February 1921. He attended Sydney Technical School from where he was awarded his Leaving Certificate in May 1925. By his teenage years Bill had developed an interest in comic drawing, some early efforts being published in his school magazine in September 1923 (under what became his customary signature 'Wep'). In September 1926 Pidgeon's first comic strip, called 'The Trifling Triplets', was published in the Sunday News and ran for the following nine months.

Panels from the comic strip 'The Progress of Mr. Humperdink', published in Wireless Weekly, 27 April 1934.

During the period of June 1927 to November 1929 Pidgeon served in the Citizen Naval Forces, undertaking a total of a week or two of training days throughout the year.

Pidgeon's drawings illustrated the serialised story by Edgar Wallace titled 'The India-Rubber Men', published in Adelaide's The Advertiser newspaper in February and March 1929.

During the years of the Great Depression in Australia Pidgeon increasingly turned to freelance work. During 1931 Pidgeon contributed occasional illustrations and cartoons to Sydney's The Referee newspaper. Together with four other artists he illustrated Trio, a book of poems by Kenneth Slessor, Harley Matthews and Colin Simpson, published in 1931 as a limited edition by Sunnybrook Press. In October 1931 Pidgeon joined the staff of The World, a daily newspaper published by the Australian Workers' Union, but the newspaper had financial problems and ceased publication in November 1932. He then returned to freelance work for a number of different publications. In February 1933 a multi-panel series 'The Week as Seen By Wep' began to be published. In May 1933 a full-page drawing by 'Wep' was published on the front page of The Sunday Sun titled 'That Great Barrier Reef'. From July 1933 to April 1934 Pidgeon illustrated a comic strip, regularly published in Wireless Weekly, called 'The Progress of Mr. Humperdink'. He also produced covers for the magazine.

Pidgeon illustrated Colin Wills' verse collection Rhymes of Sydney, published by Frank Johnson Publications in January 1933. The couple had one son, born in 1944.

Pidgeon's unnamed comic strip, published on page 10 of the first issue of the Weekly, continued in subsequent issues. By late July 1933 the comic strip began to be named, with a different title each week (including 'In and Out of Society' in the 22 July issue). In the issue of 9 September the title 'In and Out of Society' was used for a second time, but the following week the comic strip was named 'Handing Her the Palm'. From 23 September 1933 Pidgeon's comic strip was named 'In and Out of Society' on a permanent basis and published with larger panels and in a block format (rather than a horizontal sequence). The comic strip 'In and Out of Society' became extremely popular and continued through to the 1970s, later being drawn by other artists. The cartoon style that Pidgeon had developed by then was considered to be original and modern in approach and was influential with subsequent cartoon and comic strip artists. Thematically 'In and Out of Society' represented the emancipated woman, the female character dominating the narrative and with the male, via Pidgeon's gentle humour, being mostly on the receiving end.

In 1936 Pidgeon purchased a pop-top caravan and for six months he and his wife Jess travelled around New South Wales and south-east Queensland, during which Bill attempted "to develop his own style of painting".

War correspondent

In January 1940 William and Jessie Pidgeon moved to a house in Northwood, a suburb on Sydney's lower North Shore on the Lane Cove River. Pigeon lived there for the remainder of his life.

Group photograph taken at Morotai in 1945, including Corporal Komoto (POW) and William E. Pidgeon (far right).

In the latter years of World War II Pidgeon worked as a correspondent for Consolidated Press Ltd., producing many illustrations for The Australian Women's Weekly and "presenting a counterpoint to the work of the official war artists".

In June 1943 Pidgeon applied for accreditation as an official war artist and was advised he was next in line. In July he was sent to Darwin by The Women's Weekly on an assignment for two months to study and record his impressions of daily life in wartime northern Australia, in the wake of the bombing of Darwin in February 1942. After his return from New Guinea Pidgeon was formally employed by Consolidated Press as a staff member for a four year period. Two other assignments as a war correspondent followed, based at Morotai Island in Indonesia during January and February 1945 and Borneo in July and August 1945, from which localities he provided commentary and artworks depicting the day-to-day life of the troops, reproduced on the covers of The Australian Women's Weekly and within its pages as well as other Consolidated Press publications.

Portraiture

Disillusioned with work as a newspaper cartoonist, by the 1950s Pidgeon began to focus on painting and commissioned portraits became the main source of his livelihood over the next twenty-five years. He was a member of the Journalists' Club in Sydney and painted the portraits of practically every club president up to 1976. Some of his subjects included:

Sydney Journalists' Club personnel: Don Angel, Arthur Crouch, Keith Newman, Syd Nicholls, Jack Paton, Con Simons, Kenneth Slessor, King Watson, Jerry Wilkes. E. G. Theodore (Australian politician); John Christopher Thompson (Catholic priest and educationalist); Sir William Gaston Walkley (oil company director); Fannie Whitely (family friend and brother of artist Brett Whiteley).

William's wife, Jessie Pidgeon, died in September 1952 at Northwood, aged 44. In November 1954 he was married for a second time, to Dorothy Ellen Lees. The couple had one son, born in 1959.

In 1956 Pidgeon travelled to Romania on a cultural exchange program.

Pidgeon completed his last portrait in the 1970s, compelled to discontinue with fading eyesight due to glaucoma.

Legacy

In 1988 the Bloomfield Galleries in Paddington held an exhibition of Pidgeon's war paintings.

After the closure of the Journalists' Club in Sydney in 1997, it was discovered that the Archibald Prize winning painting of club president Ray Walker was missing.

In 2014 over 400 works of art by Pidgeon were donated to the Australian War Memorial. These included illustrated letters to his wife while working as a war correspondent and artist with Consolidated Press in New Guinea, Borneo, and Morotai. 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 previous decade and represents the most comprehensive collection of Pidgeon's work in Australia. A special exhibition of his art-work titled 'William Edwin Pidgeon (1909-1981), war correspondent and artist' was held at the Australian War Memorial in the period March 2015 to November 2016.

Publications

Pidgeon was commissioned to illustrate a number of books, and in some cases book covers. All books listed were "illustrated by Wep" (unless otherwise stated):

Colin Wills (1933), Rhymes of Sydney, Sydney: Frank Johnson Publications. Raffaello Carboni (1937), The Eureka Stockade, Mosman: Sunnybrook Press; re-issued in 1942. Colin Simpson (1952), Come Away, Pearler, Sydney: Angus & Robertson; jacket design by W. E. Pidgeon ('Wep'). Marian Warren (1958), No Glamour in Gumboots, Sydney: Ure Smith. Nino Cullota (John O'Grady) (1959), They're a Weird Mob, Sydney: Ure Smith. G. C. Davy (1960), The Christian Gentleman: a Book of Courtesy and Social Guidance for Boys, Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Nino Cullota (John O'Grady) (1960), Cop This Lot: A Novel, Sydney: Ure Smith . Cyril Pearl (1961), So, You Want to Buy a House... And Live in It, Melbourne: Cheshire. Nino Cullota (John O'Grady) (1962), Gone Fishin''', Sydney: Ure Smith. Cyril Pearl (1963), The Best of Lennie Lower, Melbourne: Lansdowne. John O'Grady (1965), Aussie English: An Explanation of the Australian Idiom, Sydney: Ure Smith. John O'Grady (1966), The Things They Do to You'', Sydney: Ure Smith.

Collections

Pidgeon's paintings are held in the collections of the following organisations:

Australian War Memorial Great Synagogue National Museum of Australia National Portrait Gallery

New South Wales 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

Gallery