Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Charles Ulm make a welcome inclusion to the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Their spectacular and record breaking flights around Australia, to England, the United States and New Zealand captivated a nation for whom, due to its geography, air travel was crucial. Both veterans of Gallipoli, they became close friends and colleagues in 1926 and remained so until their untimely deaths.
The works are two patinated plaster busts by Enid Fleming, and a renowned double portrait of the duo by the honoured portraitist Sir William Dargie.
It was commissioned by Walter B. Phillips, Sydney-based American managing director of Esso, successor company to Atlantic Union, whose Californian representative Locke Harper in 1928 tirelessly and much at his own expense succoured Kingsford Smith and Ulm in their heartbreaking slog to mount the first Trans-Pacific flight.
The closeness and ease of the figures serve to remind us of the role mateship has played in our culture. The brightness of colour and light generate a feeling of optimism. Indeed, discussing the portrait, Dargie commented 'For me, this painting expresses a confident, young Australia'.
Fleming sculpted the two patinated plaster busts in 1932. The elegant lines of the turned up coat collars frame the faces of these gallant gentlemen of the skies. With their smooth finish and art deco style they draw on a more romantic view of early aviation.
The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to add Australia's foremost heroes of aviation to its collection and sincerely thanks the Sydney Airports Corporation and Dr Lawrence Kingsford Sayer for this gift.
