Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist, was a regular Bulletin contributor in the 1920s and early 1930s. She may also be Bertha Nind, who contributed cartoon/s to the Bulletin in 1919 [?]. The earliest works signed by Burleigh, either in full or as 'BBB’, are hysterically anti-Labor and anti-American cartoons of 1921. What makes them unique is their being political cartoons by a woman, still a rare phenomenon, especially in the Bulletin. They include Women and Children First (showing them being hacked to bits by a blindfold 'Labor’ with an axe labelled 'Strikes’) 31 March 1921, 8; Call off the Dogs (allegorical young male Australia being torn to pieces by dogs/wolves labelled 'strikes’, 'loans’, 'waste’, with 'disease’ in the background) 5 May 1921, 8; and The New Devilfish (Octopus dollaris) 10 November 1921, 8 – encircling the world.

Then BBB contributed social cartoons to Aussie for 12 years, e.g. a quite stylish drawing of young women paddling with a couple in the distance – 'Elsie: “So Jack is engaged, is he? And is Fanny the bride-to-be?”/ Gladys: “Oh, no; she’s the tried-to-be”’ (14 January 1922, 9). The majority of her cartoons are about contemporary society and most appeared in the Bulletin. Early ones were drawn in a naturalistic style and include The Limit. 'One: “I wish you would introduce me to Mr Slideaway.”/ The other: “Impossible, my dear. Why, he’s that scared of women he employs a man stenographer-secretary”’ 1921 (ill. Rolfe, 170); Oh, That’s Different! (boys discussing how to teach girls v. sister to swim) 1922 (ill. Lindesay 1979, 173); two women in bush with BIG signature and little frog entitled The Approach Delicate (re: catching a husband) 7 January 1926, 19; (two good ballet dancers and BIG signature) Not Her Line. 'Maisie: “So Bobbie James took you to supper last evening. How many times did he kiss you, darling?”/ Daisie: “I’m sure I forget, dearest. I’m a dancer, not an accountant”’ 18 February 1926, 36; (two rather stodgy women discussing a friend’s marriage over the fence and being disappointed because it wasn’t a failure) 25 March 1926, 19.

From 1927 BBB adopted a more graphic, sophisticated Art Deco style for many of her Aussie cartoons. Eg (circular tonal beach scene, like a photograph) The Preliminary Canter 6 January 1927, 17; (man and woman in Art Deco setting with a black background) Oh no, she didn’t hang herself (the result of giving a wife plenty of rope was that she skipped) 26 May 1927; The Dirty Dog. 'Freda: “Fed up! Of course I am. I’ve lost all confidence in men.”/ Eda: “But why, darling?”/ Freda: “Well, the last three times I’ve gone to the movies with another boy I’ve spotted Fred there with another girl” 1 September 1927, 16 (decoratively and stylishly drawn); Sweet Revenge (a strange dark drawing of bathers, full of lines) 20 October 1927; (another dark tonal beach scene) The Unknown Quantity (women can’t admit weaknesses) 1 December 1927, 16; (very stylish outline of a smoking woman framed within radiating circles filled with lines and an outline man) Suspicious Anyway. '“Bobby, I don’t want to have any more to do with you – you were blotto last night!”/ “Oh girl, I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t have done, did I?”/ “Well, you tried to light my fag with your luminous watch” {?} December 1928{?}, 48; The Green-Eyed Monster' (man with pretty young woman in foreground and cupid in distance) 'The Rival./ “Him! I suppose he thinks he’s a sheik just because somebody gave him a tin of Egyptian cigarettes and he dances like a camel”’ 1930 (ill. Rolfe); The Bargain-Hunter. 'FELICE: “Isn’t that the girl who married the shopwalker at Hordern’s?/ ELISE: “Yes.”/ FELICE: “And are they happy?”/ ELISE: “Oh, yes, in a way. But she sometimes thinks she might have done better at David Jones’s”’ 9 April 1930; The Sort of Man the Manager Is (two women and man in office clothes). 'New Clerk (being shown round): “And the manager – is he very fussy?”/ Her Predecessor: “Fussy! Why if you make a blot he’ll insist on you initialling it”’ 7 May 1930; (good linear, dark figures old and young women with pram and small daughter) Speaking Up To John. 'MUM: “And how’re you getting along with him now, me dear?”/ ALICE (married, as you can see): “Oh, pretty well. I speak up to him like you told me to. He come back to me this morning. 'Is my collar soiled,’ he says, 'or is it just my imagination?’ 'Your collar’s clean enough,’ I says; 'you know best yourself what yer imagination’s like’”’ 18 June 1930; Classified (laughing woman and coy man, apparently working-class, with dozens of faces making up a frieze behind). '“May I kiss you – dear?”/ “Oh, my hat, another amateur!”’ 23 July 1930; As You Like It. 'Phoebe (examining ultra-modernistic effort): “Goodness, whatever is it supposed to be – or can you please yourself?”’ 6 August 1930 (Phoebe is rather butch, while the male friend isn’t – and the paintings in the distance are actually very conventionally Victorian); The Size of Flats at Darlinghurst (two women on the beach): 'The old 'un: “But perhaps your flat is too large!”/ The young 'un: “If we lived on as little as we live in, the tradesmen could push it through the keyhole”’ 31 December 1930; Girls Should Be So Careful [two girls sitting on window-seat with moon window behind]. 'FLORA: “Darling, I don’t think you should smoke.”/ DORA: “Why? Cigarettes won’t hurt me!”/ FLORA: “Maybe; but you set your mother such a bad example”’ 31 December 1930 (acc. O’Sullivan); (depressed man smoking and drinking whisky with boy standing beside him) Cross Examination. '“You must always be truthful and honest, John. As you grow up you’ll find that it pays.”/ “Daddy, is that why Mummy’s always telling us now that we can’t afford it”’ 19 August 1931; (full-length women) A Distinction With A Difference’ 14 October 1931, 12.

BBB’s last known cartoons were published in Aussie in 1934, eg (reduced photographic negative technique showing male and female swimmers’ torsos in sea) The Nark. '“Does your husband write when he’s away?”/ “Yes, I suspect he does, but I can’t find out who it’s to”’ 16 December 1934, 12; (more reduced decorative glamour-girl line; woman in play suit and top of man behind) '“Any more pretty girls like you round here?”/ “You boys haven’t given me time to find out”’ 31 October 1934, 10.

Included in c.1930s list of Bulletin artists ML Px*D557 pt 5, ’5 & 6’.

Two original cartoons were offered at Cromwell’s December 2002 auction, including The Bather, ink and wash 39 cm x 28 cm, signed centre right (est. $80-100)

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007