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Pegg Clarke
Australian Photographer
Melbourne c.1884 – 1959
Where are her photographs?
No accurate information is available for her date and place of birth; people have speculated that Pegg Clarke was born in Victoria but so far there is no confirmation of this. It is also possible that Pegg Clarke arrived in Australia sometime around the turn of the century - the early 1900s maybe. She was reported as having an accent. That sort of indicates being born maybe in England - but the accent could also be some form of 'well-spoken' Australian accent.
There is a statement in the pamphlet for the 2007 exhibition at the Boroondara Town Hall Gallery (Hawthorn) that 'Her birthplace remains unknown, although evidence suggests strong connections with the Castlemaine area. Perhaps significantly, in 1906, when the young Dora Wilson and the fledgling photographer Ruth Hollick were enrolled at the National Gallery School, a Miss M. Clarke was also among its students.'
For a birth date the best estimate currently is circa 1884*. If this is so, and it looks likely, or at least close, then by the time she exhibits in 1915 she is already 31 years of age. There is nothing known that is confirmed about where she learnt or practised photography and where she had been living.
Then there is her archive. It does not exist! There are probably about 50 or so known photographic prints. She did a lot of portraits of people in the social circles, the arts and children. These photographs would go home with the customer but where are the plates?
There are reports of her having several exhibitions in her studio of outstanding work and the numbers being over a hundred in each. In 2009 Boroondara Coucil (Melbourne) held an exhibition of the paintings of Dora Wilson and the photographs of Pegg Clarke (link above to catalogue). Those works have largely gone back into hiding with a few showing up at auction.
Given she was working for a couple of decades at least, there should have been heaps of plates somewhere.
Where have they all gone?
The National Gallery in Canberra has 9 photographs online.
The State Library of Victoria has about 22.
Castlemain Art Museum has 2
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The National Gallery of Victoria - none listed.
The Art Gallery of NSW has one listed.
Scotch College Archives: There are reports of photographs in the Scotch College Archives, the school across the road from where Pegg Clarke lived at Rosebank. The school magazine, The Scotchman, commissioned photographs with some being identifed by the archivist Dr Jim Mitchell as most likely Pegg Clarke's portraits of staff, prefects and significant campus events.
There is nothing in her will about her archive. No one has identified any relative holding a mass of glass plates and boxes of prints in a backroom cupboard or in the attic. Did she or someone else destroy them once they moved from their studio in Hawthorn?
She is not the only artist of this era, being the 1920 - 1930s, whereby the archive is unknown and the legacy is a small number of works when compared with what should be expected given the decades of successful work.
Lorraine Sim talks about this issue in her 2021 paper listed above.
See the exhibition catalogue of 104 photographs for sale in 1932.
return to the Pegg Clarke main page
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