Manning Clark, 1990

Manning Clark AC (1915-1991) is Australia's best-known historian. He lectured at the University of Melbourne from 1944 to 1949, when he left to become Foundation Professor of History at Canberra University College. This institution became the Australian National University, where Clark was Professor and Head of the History department and later first Professor of Australian History. He left ANU in 1975. In 1981, while still at work on his monumental, controversial, six-volume A History of Australia (1962-87), he was named Australian of the Year. In his autobiographical books The Puzzles of Childhood and The Quest for Grace, published around the time this woodcut was made, Clark wrote that he had 'learned that Australia did not have to belong to the tough; that Australia could and should belong to the lovers and believers.'

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2005
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Rick Amor