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The Real Digger Was
Not Cherubic
Sir John Monash Answered
By Will Dyion
Some bitter things have been said
about the digger, but so far nothing
so bitter as Sir John Monash's state-
ment that, in the matter of looks, the
digger is "mostly a sweet-faced,
round-faced mamma's boy."
Sr Jon mado so cruel and
ko biting a comment during tho war.
It Is doubtful whether tho A.l.F.
could havo Withstood tho shock to lm
prestige.
» Js.!,n ,ns frequently commen
ted in friendly hostility on tho faces
.WJfi . uPn tho digger bv Australian
artists—at times when discipline de
manded that uno's reception of the
comment should lack the vigorous
opposition possible In tho piping times
of peace,
fr John ever assumed
that his exalted rank gave him an
omniscience In any matter, least of
an an aesthetic one, but In 1917 there
was a sort of emanation of divinity
from the crossed swords of a gene
ral s uniform that humbled one's-
natural human arrogance.
But today one can safely say that
In tho higher command of the A.I F.,
thero probably existed a wish to have
tho common soldier delineated with
JbiiLi e?8(;n;Ial.ly warlike qualities
eliminated from his countenance. it
was as though generals expected
their men to behave like lions and
look llko lambs. But to an artist
envisaging the war, there Is, and wus,
?1\\K ,01?? thln 10 (,n — record as
faithfully ns bis- skill would permit,
his own individual reactions to the
war and Us people.
One of my own personal reactions
was- expressed in the fuces of tho dig
gers 1 drew. I probably failed to
convey what I tried to nnnvMv loft
» wanted to show In the faces
of tho A.l.F. was tho human face
under tho stress of spiritual and
physical conditions of such a charac-
r .. :-V";
tor, .that any element of the pretty-
pretty In them would havo been an
untruth and an offence.
. P 9
My own attitude to tho A.l.F. was
ono of affection bordering on wor
ship. ' Tf I failed to make the digger
look. an heroic llgurc I am content to
let It' rent- at that, but in my own way
1 .tried to mnko him as . heroic as.l
felt him, and In tho way I felt it.
Sir John has wide culture and
sound artistic judgment. Any conclu
sion of his must bo respected, but' not
necessarily bclioved in. He accuses
myself and Norman Lindsay of being
wrong in making the digger "gaunt,
haggard, with haishneas in every
facial lino."
I deny that I made the digger harsh
In every facial' line; harsh sometimes
certainly; if I had not I would have
been eliminating something that cer-
talniv was sometimes there. To have
left out all the qualities suggested by
tho word harshness would liavo been
leaving out something that had its
placo in tho composito face of the
digger.
George Lambert, with greater care
and ability, drew him gaunt and hag
gard. Epstein modelled him so, Augus
tus John, Orpen, all tho artists who
drew or painted tho digger drew or
painted them in essentials us did the
Australian artist.
In war I believe the digger was
gaunt. I believe he was haggard.
He may have been sweet and a
mammy's boy, as he undoubtedly
often was in character; but the nuture
of his work and his environment shut
out the possibility of him facially ex-
pressing those qualities.
The fine qualities of the digger's
face did not depend on mere facial
beauty.
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