Portrait Gallery

Inaugural Warden of Trinity College, 1876-1918 

Alexander Leeper was appointed Principal of Trinity College on 6 January, 1876. His term of office would last forty-two years, during which time the shape of the College, the University, and Melbourne itself changed significantly. The College was a mere six years old when Leeper arrived to take up the reins and the man himself barely in sight of his twenty-eighth birthday. Leeper's education was well-rounded, his academic accomplishments prodigious. Born in Dublin in 1848, the second son of the Revd Alexander Leeper, he completed a Bachelor's degree at Trinity College, Dublin in 1871 where he was awarded the Berkeley Gold Medal. In 1875 Leeper was awarded First Class Honours in Classical Moderations at St John's College, Oxford. His grounding as a Classics scholar was to have an indelible effect on the complexion of Trinity College as a place of academic endeavour and as an exemplar in the development of the collegiate system throughout Australia.

A widely travelled man, Leeper had visited Australia in 1869 where he met Sir George Wigram Allen's daughter, Adeline Marian, whom he would later marry, in the summer of 1879. When he took up his post as Principal of Trinity College, he had charge of only five students. By 1912 when Bunny's portrait of him was unveiled, the College could boast fifty-seven resident students. According to Dutton Green, Vice-President of the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys, the College's alumni association, Leeper had "converted what had been described as a Church of England boarding house to a real live college".

Moves to commission a portrait of Leeper began in 1910, when, at the annual dinner of the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys, members unanimously decided that a portrait of the Warden was long overdue. It was to be purchased through subscriptions limited to one guinea, the intention being to "make the presentation a representative one." It proved to be a timely resolution, for the Union was able to secure the artist Rupert Bunny to undertake the commission. Bunny had returned to Australia on 29 May, 1911, after having lived abroad for twenty-seven years.

On the evening of Thursday 2 May, 1912, Bunny's portrait of Alexander Leeper, first Warden of Trinity College, was presented to the College by the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys. According to the Union's magazine of June 1912, "The presentation was made in the Dining Hall, in the presence of a large muster of past and present students and friends of the College and other members of the University, by Mr. Dutton Green, the senior Vice-President of the Union". In his presentation speech Mr Green was reported to have said that "the history of Trinity College was practically the history of Dr Leeper's distinguished career among them."

Provenance: Presented to the College by the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys in 1912.

Scholar, curator and Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Australia (2014-2018)

When he assumed the Wardenship on 2 June, 1946, Ronald William Trafford Cowan inherited a College grappling with the realities of post-war Melbourne. Most of the undergraduate students were returned service men both older and more experienced than one would normally expect in undergraduate life. The War, however, was not remote to Cowan for he had served as an infantryman in the Middle East and on the Kokoda Trail, an experience which no doubt assisted him in his office as Warden.

In 1936 Cowan had graduated from the University of Adelaide with first class honours in history and political science and he was elected the South Australian Rhodes Scholar for 1936. At Oxford, he graduated from New College in 1938 in the Honours School of Modern Greats and was awarded a Bachelor of Letters degree for his thesis, Some problems in the Working of the Australian Federation, 1927-37. 

In the portrait of Cowan by Scott Pendlebury, we see a deep-thinking man. His government of the student body could be described as hard but fair. James Grant has commented that, "Cowan's approach to discipline could be regarded as somewhat intransigent if not ruthless: his rules were sensibly few but on these, he was quite firm and quite predictable". He expected fine things from his students and as Barry Marshall recounted, "to the time-waster and the chronic neglecter of opportunities, he was an implacable foe". Cowan also displayed a firm understanding of the order of things. As Dr Michael "Taffy" Jones recalls, he remembered the name of every resident.' When he greeted a group of students, he would do so in order of academic hierarchy.

Cowan was famous for his Dining Hall door notices. One particular notice posted before the end-of-year exam period in 1957 has been permanently enshrined in the College memory. Cowan wrote:

Gentlemen are reminded that the College exists for the maintenance of suitable conditions for serious study. The Warden views with disfavour the emergence of undesirable elements, and any proposals for the extension of extra-curricular activities, however attractive in themselves, will be dealt with in relation to this overriding consideration. Should this practice continue, their places will be in jeopardy.

The Dean, John Poynter, equated the threat of this penalty with the architectural wilderness of the newly erected "Memorial Building". Overnight, it was dubbed "Jeopardy", and the building is still known as such.

In the early 1930s Lawrence Scott Pendlebury was part of what George Johnson has described as Melbourne's "intellectual avant-garde". As a member of the Melbourne National Gallery School between the years 1932-1938, he painted alongside artists such as Sam Atyeo, Clifford Bayliss, John Sinclair, Sidney Nolan, Roger Kemp and Charles Bush. During 1938-1939 Pendlebury shared a studio in Russell Street with Sidney Nolan, Gordon Daniels and John Sinclair and could be regularly found at the bohemian Cafe Petrushka. By today's standards, his portrait of Cowan appears to be quite conservative, despite the fact that he was considered a part of a radical salon of artists whose political affiliations ranged from card-carrying members of the Communist Parly to cautious left-wing intellectuals.

Pendlebury's life as an artist, much like Cowan's academic career, was suspended because of the outbreak of World War II. Between the years 1941 and 1945, Pendlebury served with the Australian Infantry Forces. Following the War, he began teaching at Swinburne Technical College and between 1963 and 1974, he was appointed head of that institution's art school. During this period, he held at least three solo exhibitions and contributed to a number of group shows. FHe was awarded the Dunlop Prize on four occasions and the Wynne Prize in 1956, 1957 and 1960. In 1975 he was made the Victorian Artists' Society's Victorian Artist of the Year.’

Provenance: Commissioned by the Union of the Fleur-de-Lys in 1963

At the time of painting his portrait of Joseph Thomas Collins, the Principal of the Trinity College Women's Hostel, W. B. Mclnnes had embarked upon "a distinguished and important career" as an artist.' Bertram Stevens declared in March, 1920, "The rise of W. B. Mclnnes to the very front rank of Australian painters in oil has become astonishingly rapid. The following year he won the inaugural Archibald Prize for Portraiture with his portrait of the architect, Desbrowe Annear, an achievement he repeated four years in succession. In total, Mclnnes won the Archibald seven times. His popularity was acknowledged in 1927 when he was commissioned to paint the opening of the Federal Parliament in Canberra.

In selecting a well-regarded artist such as Mclnnes, the College expressed the high esteem in which it held Collins. A Senior Tutor and non-resident Lecturer in Logic at Trinity, Collins was Leeper's man. He was appointed to take over the Women's Hostel in 1891 succeeding Miss Hensley whose departure underscored the famous 'schism' between keeper and Janet, Lady Clarke. Collins made a decisive and positive impact on the life of the Hostel.'

Within four years enrolment had almost doubled from nine to fifteen and a large number of this small student body achieved outstanding academic success at the University. Collins' nine years as Principal were a labour of love and commitment to women's education in Australia as he was never paid a salary. In 1901 Collins resigned as Principal to commence his career as a parliamentary draftsman.

Provenance: Commissioned by the College Council in 1920.

It was Sir Andrew Grimwade's idea that a second portrait of Dr Burge be acquired for the College. In 1968 Sir Andrew had written the definitive account of Clifton Pugh's portraits, entitled Involvement: The Portraits of Clifton Pugh and Mark Strizic; thus he offered to commission Pugh to paint a portrait of Dr Burge. His generous gesture reflected his ambition that the College should emulate the custom of the Oxford colleges by acquiring portraits of its eminent members.

"Early in 1986", recalled Sir Andrew, "I drove Dr Burge to Pugh's home and studio at Dunmoochin, Cottles Bridge, and introduced him to Pugh. Whether the sitter was Prime Minister, Archbishop or another artist, Pugh's procedure was always the same. First he would make a quick sketch of the potential subject to see if he would consider the commission. Often, as in Dr Burge's case, the initial sketch would only take an hour or so. Conversation would then begin in a convivial atmosphere over lunch, and all the time Pugh would be assessing his subject in readiness for the next sitting.'

At the close of the first meeting, Pugh agreed to undertake the project on the condition that if either he or Sir Andrew were not happy with the result, the commission was at an end. Four sittings took place before the portrait was completed. When it was unveiled at the Fleur-de-Lys dinner in 1986, Clifton Pugh remarked to a large audience "Many of you will think of Evan as gentle but I have depicted a much tougher, less familiar side to him".

The likeness of Dr Burge as captured by Pugh is not the most controversial aspect of the portrait. Discussion about the work usually focuses on the vivid palette of flaming orange and leaf green. Pugh has provocatively brought together two colours residing at opposite ends of the spectrum. This was not an arbitrary decision. As a portraitist Pugh was always searching for the symbolic inference to signify the greater depths of his sitter's life and work. "I am trying to find something out about them. Something which I might consider the essence of them", he once commented. This he had achieved to great acclaim in his famous portrait of Archbishop Daniel Mannix. For his portrait of Dr Burge, he had asked that his sitter bring something of importance in his life to the first sitting.

Anxious to represent the College and the Church, Dr Burge brought with him the New Testament in Greek, the Trinity crest, a green stole and matching chasuble, and his academic gown representing the Princeton Doctorate. The Princeton robes are marked by three intense gills and facings of orange fabric. The chasuble is grass green in colour to symbolise the Trinity season and like the stole was made by Palestinian women whose craft was their only source of income. The crest is richly ornamented with filigree like foliage.'' Pugh consciously embraced the juxtaposition between colours not only because it was interesting to him but equally because the iconography was simply too powerful to ignore.

The stole in the upper left-hand corner carries a series of Jerusalem crosses and there is a richly embroidered panel on the chasuble, which is found in the opposite corner. Although there was no room for the Gospels in Greek, the assemblage does reveal a deep and thoughtful man. Surrounded by the chosen emblems of his sitter's life as scholar, priest and Warden, Pugh has captured a man of intellect, but one in whom, above all, a deep humanity prevails.

Provenance: Presented with the support of Sir Andrew Grimwade CBE (TC 1949) in 1986.

In 1945 a group of students proposed that the College commission a portrait of Sir John Behan, the second Warden of the College. A sub-committee was formed to determine the artist and the cost of the portrait. The members, being unacquainted with the art world, turned to the vicechancellor, Mr J.D. Medley, who was "known to be knowledgeable about art", to assist them in making the decision. Medley recommended the Australian artist, James Quinn, who had gained an enviable reputation as a society portraitist in London before returning to Melbourne in 1937. Quinn agreed to the commission for a fee of £300.

If the College was expecting to rekindle the happy meeting of hearts and minds which had so characterised the Leeper-Bunny encounter, it was sadly mistaken. In the Trinity College Newsletter of July, 1982, F. J. Moreton, a former student of the College, and a prime mover of the enterprise, recalled that never were two men so at odds with each other as Quinn and Behan. Moreton had been selected to accompany Behan to Quinn's studio on the day the Warden was to sit for the artist. It soon became painfully obvious "that the two men, in a very short time, had developed either a fear or a dislike for each other". On reflection, Moreton adds, "it was probably both.

John Clifford Valentine Behan was the second Warden of Trinity College, assuming the wardenship on 23 April, 1918. Behan was an exceptional scholar. He had graduated in Arts with First Class Honours and Final Scholarships in the Schools of Logic and Philosophy and of History and Political Economy in Melbourne in 1904. In addition, he had taken First Class Honours in Law and the Final Scholarship in Law and was awarded numerous University and College Exhibitions and Prizes, including the Wyselaskie Scholarship and the Cobden Club Medal. He was a Trinity man and the College had been proud to claim him as such, especially so when he was elected Victoria's first Rhodes Scholar in 1904.

Behan's intellectual stamina was legendary. In Oxford in 1906, he was awarded First Class honours in both Jurisprudence and in the Bachelor of Common Low, a near impossible feat given that the two examinations overlapped by one paper. Behan left the last paper in Jurisprudence after 90 minutes and wrote the first paper of B.C.L. in the remaining 90 minutes. He was the only student in the history of the Oxford Law School to have achieved such an extraordinary act.''

As Warden, Behan demanded the same exacting standards of his students as he did of himself. He was not a man to suffer fools gladly and his reputation was that of an aloof and austere man, very much in the manner in which Quinn has portrayed him in this portrait. He inherited a College whose urgent need to expand was seriously inhibited by a perilous financial position. He approached this challenge with alarming zeal. In 1935 his first goal was achieved when a handsome stone building facing Royal Parade was opened. In honour of his service to the College the building was named "Behan".

Moreton's reflections support this impression of Quinn. He wrote:

'...with hindsight, it could be said that, had the sub committee been more sensitive and less enthusiastic, it would have been apparent to them that the development of a satisfactory relationship between Jock and Quinn the artist would be highly improbable. Quinn's appearance and manner were then somewhat less than personable and his studio in more chaos than one could reasonably expect from an artist.'

In the Trinily portrait, a sense of disdain is clearly apparent in the Warden's expression and it is tempting to conclude that Quinn's manner may have prompted Behan's expression of hauteur.

Provenance: Commissioned by the College Council in 1945

The portrait was commissioned by Mr Robert Cripps as a tribute to Dr Burge's leadership as Warden, and for his efforts in persuading a cautious Council to accept the generosity of the donor who, on behalf of his family, had offered to restore the fabric of the Horsfall Chapel. In true philanthropic spirit, Cripps also saw it as an opportunity to support an up-andcoming artist whose work he admired.

The portrait is the earlier of two portraits of Dr Burge, fifth Warden of Trinity College. The later portrait is by Clifton Pugh. Dr Burge recalls that sitting for David Thomas was a very different experience from being painted by Pugh. Thomas adopted a highly ordered approach, taking photographs and making sketches at each sitting but never painting in the presence of the sitter. His work testifies to an interest in realist detail. At the time, Thomas was to some degree influenced by Brian Dunlop. He seemed to take a particular interest in Dr Burge's brown shoes, which the Warden remembered wearing frequently during that period. They are given an unusual prominence in this portrait.

One of the most notable features of the portrait is the large shadow cast behind the sitter. Thomas experimented with various lamps during the process and was intrigued by the shadows they cast and the symbolism they suggested. The large shadow in this portrait, which is not at ail realistic, suggests an enhanced presence. It is not the presence so much of the individual, but more an allusion to the authority of Burge's role as Warden.

In appointing Dr Evan Burge as its fifth Warden, the College was once again presided over by a Classics scholar. He came to Trinity College at the begining of June, 1974. Previously he had been lecturer and then senior lecturer in Classics at the Australian National University. His first degree in Classics was from the University of Queensland, from which he graduated with First Class Honours and a University Medal in 1956, and was awarded a Queensland Government Travelling Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. Two years later, he graduated with First Class Honours in Literae Humaniores ("Greats"). While in Oxford, he married a Queensland medical graduate. Dr Barbara Payne. By the time they came to the Warden's Lodge in Trinity, they had six children, three boys and three girls. His success at Oxford led to his appointment to the Canberra University College, later the School of General Studies at the Australian National University. While a lecturer in Canberra, he studied, during two periods of leave, under Professor Gregory Vlastos in the Classical Philosophy Programme at Princeton University, New Jersey, and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1969 for a thesis on Plato and Causality.

In Canberra, Dr Burge was ordained as honorary deacon of the Anglican Church by Bishop Ernest Burgmann in 1960 and as Priest in 1 971. He became deeply involved in writing liturgies during this period and in 1 970 was appointed a member of the national Anglican Liturgical Commission. He was responsible for drafting the widely used second order for the Holy Communion in An Australian Prayer Book (1978) and for the Collects in A Prayer Book for Australia (1995). At the same time he always retained his admiration and affection for The Book of Common Prayer.

As Warden of Trinity, Dr Burge saw many changes, especially the introduction of women to co-residence in 1974, following decisions in principle taken in Professor Sharwood's last year. The incorporation of the College by Act of Parliament in 1979, the establishment of the Trinity College Foundation in 1983, and of the Trinity Foundation Studies Program for overseas students in 1989, and the adoption of a major Strategy Plan in 1994 were other important changes. The cultural life of the College was a special concern of his, especially the establishment of the Trinity College Choir in 1975 and the gradual improvement in the standard of production of Trinity plays and musicals. Dr Burge also had oversight of the formation of the Art Committee and the E.R. White Club following the contentious sale of the John Brack painting, The Breakfast Table in 1989.

A new building, named the Evan Burge Building, was opened on 19 April, 1996, by Sir Ninian Stephen. Containing teaching rooms, a lecture theatre and a magnificent library area which houses the Leeper and Mollison libraries on the upper level, it stands as his permanent memorial within Trinity. This would not have been possible without the Trinity Foundation Studies Program and the Trinity College Foundation and the many people who worked tirelessly for them. He retired on 30 September, 1997, and was made a Fellow in November, 1997. The sixth Warden, Professor Donald Markwell, was installed on 15 September, 1997.

Provenance: Commissioned by Mr Robert Cripps in 1984

In 1972 the College Council decided to commission a portrait of the fourth Warden, Professor Robin SharwoodJ Having sought advice from Professor A.G.L. Shaw, the College turned to the art dealer, Dr Joseph Brown, to recommend a suitable artist. Brown astutely suggested the artist, Rick Amor, who was a recent graduate of the Melbourne National Gallery School. When the portrait was completed, Joseph Brown included the work in an exhibition of portraits in his Collins Street gallery.^ Amor agreed to commence work with the proviso that he "got along" with the sitter and that the space in which the work was to be displayed was agreeable. At that time. Amor lived in the manager's cottage on Daryl Lindsay's property at Mulberry Hill, Baxter. It was here that artist and sitter met for the painting of the portrait. Both men found that in fact they got along very well and the friendship continued. When the portrait was first hung in the Dinning Hall, Professor Sharwood wondered whether he really did look as bleak as at first the work suggested.^ Indeed its sharp lines and the palette of black and crimson against the unconventional opal white background place it in stark contrast to the darker portraits of Professor Sharwood's predecessors. That the work provides such a sharp contrast to the older works surrounding it explains why it is one of the more controversial portraits in the collection. Professor Sharwood was appointed Warden on 2 December, 1964, and assumed the office of Warden on 1 June, 1965. At the time of the appointment, he was Professor of Law in the School of General Studies of the Australian National University, Canberra."* Professor Sharwood's return to Parkville in 1965 reacquainted him with the University of Melbourne where he had graduated from the Faculty of Law with First Class Honours in 1954. As the Walter Perry Johnson Graduate Research Fellow, Sharwood went to the University of California where he obtained a Master of Laws. This he followed with a year at Harvard as the Peter Brooks Saltonstall Scholar. He then left America to teach Law at the London School of Economics. Professor Sharwood returned to Australia in 1958 as a Senior Lecturer in the University of Melbourne and a resident Senior Tutor at Ormond College. In 1962 he was awarded the degree Scientae Juridicae Doctor from Harvard University after which he was appointed to his Canberra Chair.

The installation of the fourth Warden was met with unprecedented ceremony and concluded with the optimistic flourish of a fireworks display on the Bulpadock. In his inaugural address. Professor Sharwood articulated his hopes for the College:

This must be a place where life is pursued, and happily pursued, at its highest and at its best, with unfailing integrity and intellectual endeavour, with all the talents we possess individually and collectively, and with that elegance and wit and taste which are so much part of the Trinity tradition.

If the Sharwood era were given a sobriquet it could be "The Restoration". While no full-scale building programme was undertaken during his Wardenship, he set about quietly to embellish the buildings and grounds with what can only be described as an elegance quite at odds with the swinging decade of the revolutionary 1960s. Clarke's was in urgent need of renovation. However, at this time the Government would not fund educational institutions for such works. Professor Sharwood put it to the authorities that if the College were in fact to demolish Clarke's, the Government under its current policies would be liable to finance the erection of a new building. In light of this proposition, the Government changed its policy on the matter of renovations to older buildings and agreed to make capital available as it did subsequently for the renovation of Bishops'. In the process of renovating Clarke's, the Rusden Museum was discovered.

Professor Sharwood was also responsible for acquiring the elegant "Shakespeare Windows" that had been saved from the Brighton mansion, Norwood. In addition, he oversaw the installation of the "Henty font" in the Horsfall Chapel. The art collection was augmented by his donation of numerous collegiate prints following several sabbaticals at Oxford and Cambridge. He brought the warm air of Tuscany to the entrance of the College with his donation of four sentinel-like cypress and he planted two lime trees near the front gate as a reminder of the Lime Walk at Trinity College, Cambridge. Under his direction, the old Science Laboratory abutting the car park was restored as a music room and this he progressively decorated with a number of art works reflecting the Sharwood taste for restraint and serenity. His dogged and methodical pursuit of a portrait of Bishop Perry led to Trinity College, Cambridge's donation of a mezzotint of Bishop Perry after the original portrait by Henry Weigall, (cat. no. 5). Professor Sharwood was made a Fellow in 1980.

Following his departure, Professor Sharwood continued to give generously to the College, in particular building up its collection of modern Australian prints. Perhaps his most utilitarian legacy was the first inventory of the art collection, which was completed by Leonard Joel in 1972. He died in April 2015, at the age of 83.

Provenance: Commissioned by the College Council in 1972.