Witty Eric Thake

Many Australian artists have taken to the outback.

Including the multi-talented Melbourne artist Eric Thake. He had previously visited the Northern Territory on one of his trips as an Official War Artist (1944 to 1946).

Back on a holiday visit in 1952, he took these light-hearted images.

| Eric Thake, Australian Summer-time, 1952, State Library of Victoria |

Before Brett Whitely painted his million dollar painting, The Olgas For Ernest Giles, Thake snapped this image at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and titled it the Five Kneeling Pink Elephants of Ernest Giles. 

Both artists are referring to the Australian explorer Ernest Giles’ description of the monoliths in his book, Australia twice traversed: the romance of exploration, being a narrative compiled from the journals of five exploring expeditions into and through central South Australia and Western Australia from 1872 to 1876.

Don’t judge a book by its title because it looks like a really good read.

| Eric Thake, Five Kneeling Pink Elephants of Ernest Giles, 1952, State Library of Victoria |

Julia Ritson