AustLit

'In November 1945, Mrs R. D. Berry of Walcha, New South Wales, wrote to Prime Minister Ben Chifley, offering to send a portrait she had painted of the late John Curtin for his consideration. Chifley directed the deputy secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, Frank McKenna, to tell her that he would ‘not be in a position to express an opinion regarding its artistic merits’ and to advise her to send the portrait to the chairman of the Commonwealth Arts Advisory Board, Gother V. F. Mann. Soon, however, McKenna had to write again to Mrs Berry to inform her that ‘Mr Mann … does not think an amateur without art education could produce the desired result’ in a portrait of Curtin. Kindly but discouragingly, he told her that ‘Mr Mann would be glad to report on your painting if he saw it, but he does not think it advisable to trouble you to send the painting to his office for that purpose.’' (Introduction)