By NOEL MURPHY
AS Australia focuses today on the art world’s prestigious Archibald Prize, it’s a fair bet the stone memorial commemorating its Geelong-born namesake will be sitting somewhat forlorn and forgotten.
Even with two locals shortlisted for the $100,000 prize – Sophia Hewson and Samuel Condon – the memorial, beneath cypresses at West Oval, won’t get a second glance. Which is a little sad.
It took until 1960 before the memorial was even erected, more than 40 years after Archibald’s 1919 death. Perhaps that’s not so unexpected, for getting a proper handle on John Feltham Archibald has always been a bit tricky.
Born January 14, 1856 – probably inside his father’s police station that sat at the northwest corner of Church and Weddell streets – Archibald is one of Geelong’s most famous sons. He founded the Bulletin magazine, the Bushman’s Bible, which became a byword all things intellectual and Australia and nationalist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He didn’t last long in Geelong though. A year and that was it as his Irish father, Joseph, took off for Warrnambool, Ballarat and Port Fairy – but oddly not Adelaide, where Archibald’s death certificate said he was born.
Archibald’s JF initials were also oddly assigned – ranging from John Feltham to John Francis and Jules Francois. Some argued the J stood for James and a government department posted him as a Julian.
His mother, Charlotte Jane Madden, was from Cambridge but he claimed she was born in France. Indeed, when he married Rose Frankenstein, the marriage certificate recorded his birthplace as France.
Oddly yet again, Archibald once told William McLeod, The Bulletin’s business manager, that he’d been born in Warrnambool.
Hewson and Condon might be hoping no-one holds their link to Archibald and his identity crisis against them.
Hewson’s self-portrait entry, Delivered, is a powerful statement on her sexuality. Condon’s is a colourful check-shirted portrait of Aussie actor John Jarratt.
