John Brack (1920-1999), Study for Barry Humphries in the Character of Mrs Everage 1969

pencil on paper
signed and dated 'John Brack 69' lower centre
50 X 70.5CM

Provenance:
Mr Barry Humphries AO CBE, London

I met John Brack in Melbourne in the late 1950's through my friends, Arthur Boyd and John Perceval. He had already attracted attention with works such as The Bar (1954, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), Collins St., 5 p.m. (1955, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), and The Car (1955, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) works to which
that irritating and all-purpose epithet 'iconic' is now applied. The critic, Alan McCulloch had recognised his genius but others were not so sure, dismissing these works as caricatures, a term of opprobrium previously flung at Goya, Daumier, Lautrec and Otto Dix. Moreover Brack's work of this period was tainted by the insidious influence of the popular French painter Bernard Buffet. These wonderfully original paintings made a deep impression on me because I felt that Brack's pictorial observations resembled my own theatrical portrayals of Melbourne life. At that time, Brack was teaching art at my Alma Mater Melbourne rammar, and I regretted missing his tutelage by only a year.

Sometime in the mid 1960's I talked to him about doing a portrait of Mrs Everage who was then in her Thai silk phase. I had had a dress made for her in that fashionable textile with a 'fly away panel' and a string of plastic pearls around her neck. She wore pink gloves and a hat which was a cluster of imitation daisies on a coif which had yet to turn mauve. In
the artist's studio during one of the sittings, Brack would often groan and make disgusted comments in his quiet cultivated voice.

"Look John" I once exclaimed "if this was such a bad idea I won't be in the least offended if you give up on the project."

He had just exploded "This is frightful, horrible!"

"Really?" I reiterated "We'll call it off if you feel like that."

"Heavens no, those are my highest terms of praise. Keep still!"

To my knowledge this drawing, which has been in my possession since it was made and never exhibited, is the only study extant for the painting which is now a crowd-pleaser in the collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Not long before his death, I visited John in his studio in Melbourne's old suburb of Surrey Hills, in order to make a photographic portrait of him. He had been unwell and had ceased painting his meticulous and uniquely imaginative works which were never without Brack's wit and irony. His complexion was more florid but his humour and erudition dominated his conversation as in the past. I wish I could find the photographs I took on that day, they are buried somewhere in my large archive of artist portraits. But I remember him as he stood on the verandah of the Federation house he and Helen had shared for so many years and shook hands. It was the last time.

Barry Humphries AO CBE

We gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance of Helen Brack in cataloguing this work.