The Australian Women's Register

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.