William Pidgeon

William Edwin Pidgeon, aka Bill Pidgeon and Wep, (1909–1981) was an Australian painter who won the Archibald Prize three times.

After his death, cartoonist and journalist Les Tanner described him: "He was everything from serious draftsman, brilliant cartoonist, social observer, splittingly funny illustrator to multiple Archibald prizewinner.

Pidgeon was born on 7 January 1909 in Paddington, an inner suburb of Sydney.

He was the son of Frederick Castledine Pidgeon and Thirza Jessie Pidgeon, née White.

He was educated at Sydney Technical High School.

He studied for a period of 6 months under J. S. Watkins In September 1926, at the age of 17, he had his first comic strip published.

The Trifling Triplets appeared in The Sunday News.

He was also published regularly in the (Sydney) Evening News where he was employed as a cadet artist.

He also worked in Sydney for the Daily Guardian, the Sun, the World and the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Editor George Warnecke soon employed Pidgeon as an illustrator on the Smith's Weekly.

Pidgeon served in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve between 1927 and 1930 (Service Number S6342).

Pidgeon was married twice.

He also illustrated for The Telegraph in the 1930s.

Art Reviews

Pidgeon commenced his career illustrating for the magazine starting with the first issue where he illustrated a short article on the scotch terrier. Pidgeon collaborated with humourist Lennie Lower during the late 1930s.

This collaboration contributed to the magazine achieving the highest circulation in Australia.

In and Out of Society

He married Jessie Graham in 1933.

The first issue was published 10 June 1933.

Pidgeon used the moniker Wep for the In and Out of Society comic strip which entered the pages of The Weekly in September 1933.

It had a theme of the emancipated woman.

The leading lady dominated the strip and most of Wep's gentle humour saw the male on the receiving end.

Pidgeon used an extreme style that has been considered comic, original and modern in approach and has influenced humorous artists since.

They had one son in 1944.

The same year he moved to Northwood, New South Wales where he lived for the remainder of his life.

From 1954 he suffered from glaucoma in both eyes.

This condition led to gradual deterioration of his eyesight and necessitated six operations.

After Jessie's death, he married Dorothy Lees and a second son was born in 1959.

In 1965 Hazel de Berg interviewed him as part of an oral history project to interview Australian artists.

Although the strip continued through to the 1970s and drawn by other artists, Wep's work on the strip made it a household name.

War Correspondent

Pidgeon was a war correspondent for The Australian Women's Weekly (Consolidated Press). He visited Darwin, Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea, Morotai and Borneo.

He produced cartoons, illustrations and paintings which were produced as covers.

Pidgeon wrote occasional art reviews for the Daily Telegraph for a number of years, and returned to this in 1974 when his eyesight was failing.

Warnecke asked Pidgeon to help produce a dummy for a new magazine The Australian Women's Weekly which he did.

Warnecke took the idea to media proprietor Frank Packer.

He died 16 February 1981 aged 72 years.

Cartoonist Les Tanner studied under Pidgeon.

Career

Pidgeon began his drawing career by doing comic illustrations for his Technical High School magazine; at 16 years of age he began a newspaper artist cadetship at The Sunday Times.