Clarke, Pegg | AWR

Summary

Pegg Clarke was a Pictorialist photographer who ran her own successful photography business until the 1950s. Clarke is known for being the only woman to be included in the First Exhibition of the Australian Salon of Photography in 1924.

Details

Little is known of Pegg Clarke’s early years and what drew her to photography. What is evident, however, is that she worked as a professional photographer of considerable repute. Jack Cato referred to her work as being of ‘the highest standard’ (Cato 136).

During the interwar period, Clarke’s clientele included rich and prominent Melbourne society figures. Clarke was known for her studio, portrait and function photography, as well as for her urban and rural photographs, which were created in the Pictorialist style.

Clarke was well-regarded for her softly focussed impressionistic style, and her photograph Mist in the Mountains was reproduced in Cameragraphs, and included in the First Exhibition of the Australian Salon of Photography in 1924. She was the only Australian woman to be included in this exhibition. Another of her photographs, Winnie, created controversy due to its ‘fuzzy’ image but ended up winning equal first prize at The Home Portraiture Competition in 1915.

Clarke lived with the artist Dora Wilson at ‘Rosebank,’ Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, opposite Scotch College, from 1927. The two women shared a studio, and also travelled around Australia, and then London and Europe from 1926-1927. During this period they produced a series of photographs and paintings that were later featured in an exhibition entitled Together Again: Celebrating the work of Pegg Clark and Dora Wilson, in 2009.

Pegg Clarke died at the age of 66 in 1956. Her photographs continue to generate interest regularly sell at Australian auctions.

Collections

Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum

Private Collections

State Library of Victoria.

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Events

1931 - 1931
Pegg Clarke’s work featured in Impressions of Melbourne Exhibition
Exhibition
1981 - 1981
Pegg Clarke’s work featured in Australian Women Photographers 1840-1950
Exhibition
2009 - 2009
Pegge Clarke’s work featured in Together Again: Celebrating the Work of Pegg Clarke and Dora Wilson
Exhibition
1921 - 1921
Pegg Clarke’s work featured in the London Salon held by the Royal Photographic Society.
Exhibition
1923 - 1923
Pegg Clarke’s work featured in the Colonial Prints Exhibition,organised by the English magazine Amateur Photographer
Exhibition
1919 - 1950
1915 - 1915
Pegg Clarke was awarded a prize at the Australian Photo-Review competitiion for her child portrait Winnie.
Prize

Published resources

Exhibition Catalogue
- Australian Women Photographers 1840-1950, 1981
- Catalogue of Camera Pictures by Pegg Clarke: at Athenaeum Gallery, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne from Monday, 5th December to Saturday, 17th December, [1932]., Clarke, Pegg, 1932, http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/107495
Book
- Australian Women Photographers 1840 - 1960, Hall, Barbara and Mather, Jenni, 1986
- The Story of the Camera in Australia, Cato, Jack, 1979
Thesis
- Making Pictures: Australian Pictorial Photography as Art 1897-1957, Ebury, Francis, 2001
Edited Book
- Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Kerr, Joan, 1995
Newspaper Article
- Miss Rhoda Law-Smith, whose engagement is announced., Clarke, Pegg, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12096059
Resource Section
- Pegg Clarke (c1890-c1956) Australia, http://www.artrecord.com/index.cfm/artist/9700-clarke-pegg/
- Together Again: Celebrating the Work of Dora Wilson and Pegg Clarke, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/15121/20090720-0935/www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/council/media_rel/2009/july/together-again.html
- Who was Pegg Clarke?, https://www.scotch.vic.edu.au/greatscot/2005sepgs/49pegg.htm

Related entries

Contemporary
- Mills, Alice (1870 - 1929)