Untitled (portrait of a waterside worker wearing a cap)
Maker
Clem Millward
(Australian, born 1929)
Date1957
Object number00018795
NameDrawing
MediumPen, Ink on paper
DimensionsMount: 285 x 200 mm
Overall: 285 x 200 mm, 0.013 kg
Sheet: 230 x 153 mm
Overall: 285 x 200 mm, 0.013 kg
Sheet: 230 x 153 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionUntitled (portrait of a waterside worker wearing a cap) ink and wash painting by Clem Millward.
Portrait of a bearded man wearing a peaked cap against a grey/brown wash. Clem recalled that these "tramp steamer men" were drawn the day after he encountered them on the wharves.HistoryThis work by Clem Millward reflects his experience working on the waterfront. Millward had studied painting in Australia and overseas, and worked casual shifts as a wharfie, enabling him time to pursue his art. Millward sketched wharfies in the union canteen during meal breaks and slack periods at work, producing paintings from those sketches afterwards. These men, often anonymous, represent the character and culture of the wharf workers environment at the time.
Millward was also active in the Waterside Workers Federation Art Group, and together with Nan Hortin and Vi Collins, presented art classes for waterside workers' children on Saturday mornings from 1956.
Maritime unions in the mid-twentieth century fostered cultural and educational groups within their ranks. The Waterside Worker's Federation - with a communist-based philosophy - saw a broad role for trade unions in society. Waterside workers lived as well as worked together and were also receptive to the union filling some of the roles of a local social club.