William Dargie, Sir George Wales, portrait, Lord Mayor
Summary
Born at Richmond in 1885, the eldest of seven children, Sir George was forced to leave school at the age of fourteen to work as a railway labourer after his father was blinded by an industrial accident. Undeterred, Wales was determined to improve his situation. Night school, a position as a clerk in the new Commonwealth public service, and the management and ultimately the chairmanship of a leading building and quarrying firm, followed. Later commercial interests were varied: finance, construction and the early petroleum industries.
Wales began his public career in 1914 with his election to Brunswick Council. In 1925 he progressed to the Melbourne City Council where he remained until his shock defeat in 1954. During this twenty-nine year span he was a member of most council committees and chair of the important public works and the prestigious Melbourne centenary committees. He was Lord Mayor for three terms (1934-37), for which he received the customary reward, a knighthood.
Sir William Dargie
Another Melbourne boy who was eventually knighted, Dargie was born at Footscray in 1912.
While serving in the Australian Army during wartime, Dargie was digging a trench in Tobruk, Libya, when he was informed that he had won the 1942 Archibald Prize. There were to be eight of them in total. Indeed, though Dargie became a significant war artist and painter of still lifes and landscape, it is portraiture for which he was – and remains – renowned.
His most famous work is the ‘wattle painting’, Australia's official portrait of the new Queen Elizabeth. Dargie also painted the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1956, and this hangs in the Melbourne Room of Melbourne Town Hall. Other subjects include three Australian prime ministers (Menzies, Fadden and McEwan), aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith, tennis player Margaret Court, soldiers Blamey and McArthur and fellow artist Albert Namatjira.
This portrait was a private commission and is undated. It was generously donated to Council in 2014 by the grand-daughters of Sir George Wales.
