Dobell’s Case (2016)

In this fascinating, in-depth exploration of the clash between the art world and the law, the Honourable Justice Thomas Bradley (then Bradley QC) discusses Dobell’s case – the 1944 challenge brought by two artists against the decision to award the ‘Archibald prize’ to William Dobell for his portrait of fellow-artist, Joshua Smith. By meticulous research of the local press reporting on the case, the court reporting, National Library of Australia records and the transcript of the trial, Justice Bradley evokes the charged atmosphere of World War II Australia, happily diverted by the ‘Art Prize Case’ in the Equity Division of the New South Wales Supreme Court before Justice Rolfe. The senior players at the bar table were considerable: Barwick KC for the Attorney-General and the informant artists, Kitto KC for the gallery trustees and Dwyer KC for Dobell.

The lecture, reproduced below, contains extracts and analysis of the evidence including fascinating extracts of the cross-examination of the witnesses. The parties called many experts to opine on whether the painting was a portrait or something else – at least one denying its character as a portrait and describing it as ‘a pictorial defamation of character’!

This superb lecture was delivered by Bradley QC on 21 April 2016 in the Banco Court of the Queensland Supreme Court, was published (with accompanying photographs) in the 2016 Queensland Legal Yearbook (published by the Supreme Court Library Queensland) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Justice Bradley.

Dobell’s Case