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The Life and Work of Godfrey Clive Miller, 1893 - 1964

PhD thesis by Ann Wookey

Introduction

notes

1. 1.Since uncertainty attends the dates of its name changes, the title of National Art School has been adopted as a convenience through the thesis.
   

2. 2.Magazine articles published overseas during this period in which his painting was mentioned were Alan McCulloch, ‘L’art contemporain en Australie’, Prisme des Arts, 15 April 1956, pp 21-28, and Hal Missingham, ‘Recent Australian painting’, The Studio, vol CLIII no 767, February 1957, pp 33-41, 63.
   

3. 3.Laurie Thomas, intro, Modern Australian Painting & Sculpture: a Survey of Australian Art from 1950 to 1960, Adelaide, Kim Bonython, 1960, pp 9, 10, and Bernard Smith, Australian Painting 1788-1960, 1st edn, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1962, p 302 [Smith’s attribution of Miller’s brush technique to Seurat’s pointillism, a remark that offended Miller, had been alluded to previously by Arnold Shore; Arnold Shore, ‘Earned honour for painter’, exhibition review, The Age, Melbourne, 17 June 1959, p 2].
   

4. 4.Obituaries: James Gleeson, ‘Quiet man of painting’, The Sun Herald, Sydney, 17 May 1964, p 86, Daniel Thomas, ‘Loss of a painter’, Sunday Telegraph, Sydney, 17 May 1964, p 60, ‘Godfrey Miller “A few possessions eloquent of their owner”’, The Bulletin, 30 May 1964, pp 26, 27, and Alan McCulloch, ‘In memoriam Godfrey Miller’, Art and Australia, Sydney, vol 2, no 2, August 1964, pp 101-105 [McCulloch had been in correspondence with Miller since 1954].
   

5. 5.John Henshaw, foreword, Godfrey Miller Memorial Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Darlinghurst Galleries, Sydney, 16 February - 27 March 1965. The exhibition was mounted by the beneficiaries to Miller’s Estate, namely Lewis Miller, John Kaplan and John Henshaw. Doubtless Lewis was responsible for some detail about Miller’s life; see also Appendix 4.
   

6. 6.John Henshaw, ed, Godfrey Miller, Sydney, Darlinghurst Galleries, 1965
   

7. 7.Kay Keavney, ‘Godfrey Miller: the man who became a legend’, The Australian Women’s Weekly, 16 November 1966, pp 10, 11, 68, and Kay Keavney, ‘Godfrey Miller’s lost love’, The Australian Women’s Weekly, 22 March 1967, p 2.
   

8. 8.These more general art texts are listed along with those mentioned in previous footnotes and the few that follow in the Bibliography, Part II, ‘Biographical references to Miller and / or his pictures mentioned’.
   

9. 9.Alan McCulloch, Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Richmond, Victoria, Hutchinson of Australia, 1968, pp 382, 383 [2nd ed, 1984, vol 2, pp 800-802], Robert Hughes, The Art of Australia, Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin Books, 1970, pp 209-211, Daniel Thomas, Outlines of Australian Art: the Joseph Brown Collection, 3rd edn, New York, Harry N Abrams, Inc, Publishers, 1989, p 42 [previous two edns also], Douglas Dundas, ‘Godfrey Miller and his art’, Antique News & Sales, vol 1, July 1975, pp 3-10, Ronald Millar, Civilized Magic: an Interpretive Guide to Australian Paintings, Toorak, Victoria, Sorrett Publishing, 1974, pp 36-39, Ernest Smith, ‘Memories of three New Zealand expatriate painters’, Art New Zealand, vol 1, August - September 1976, pp 11-15, and Harry Osborne, ed, The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Art, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981, pp 373, 374.
   

10. 10.Geoffrey Dutton, The Innovators: the Sydney Alternatives in the Rise of Modern Art, Literature and Ideas, South Melbourne, Victoria, The MacMillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd, 1986, pp 175-181.
    

11. 11.Rosemary Crumlin, Images of Religion in Australian Art, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, December 1988 - January 1989, Sydney, Bay Books, 1988, p 82, and Mary Eagle, Australian Modern Painting between the Wars 1914-1939, Sydney, Bay Books, 1989, p 85.
    

12. 12.Christopher Marshall, A Deep Sonorous Thing: the Newman College Collection of Art, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne University Gallery, Melbourne, 1993, cat no 4, pp 31, 32. Dr Ursula Hoff has more recently contributed the Australian entries to The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Art.
    

13. 13.Fine Australian Paintings including European Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture, auction catalogue, Sotheby’s Australia Pty Ltd, Armadale, Victoria, 19 April 1993, cat nos 209, 223, 337 [all illustrated; nos 209 and 377 were mature canvases of reasonable artistic standard]. All three factors, variable quality, unknown style and market slump, inject serious complications into any assessment of market tendency at auction.
    

14. 14.I am indebted to Charles Nodrum, Melbourne, for his opinion on the current state of collector interest in Miller’s work.
    

15. 15.Miller also rarely initialled or signed his work.
    

16. 16.Letter from Miller to C V Allen, London, undated [ca 1934-38], Godfrey Clive Miller, Papers, 1919-1964, with Papers of his Brother, Lewis Miller, 1916-1962 [referred to hereafter as Miller Papers I], quotations reproduced with permission from the AMP Perpetual Trustee Company NZ Ltd, Sydney, Mitchell Library, ML MSS 1005, vol 14, p 153. A clumsiness of expression typical of Miller’s letters often necessitates their editing. The thesis acknowledges any alterations made to wording but not changes made to punctuation.
    

17. 17.Letter from Miller to Alan McCulloch, Sydney, 4 February 1959, Godfrey Clive Miller, Correspondence with Alan McCulloch [critic], May 1954 to March 1964 [referred to hereafters as Miller Papers IV], Susan McCulloch, Shoreham, Victoria, and reproduced in McCulloch, ‘In memoriam Godfrey Miller’ [1964], op cit, p 105.
    

18. 18.These external dimensions are those given either by a work’s bounding lines inscribed by Miller in ink, pencil, etc. or the canvas, board or paper size from which was derived the lesser of two ratios, height to width or width to height; see also Appendix 3.
    

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