Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Biography

painter, cartoonist and commercial artist, was born in Sydney on 28 November 1905, second of the three daughters of the poet, illustrator and cartoonist Hugh McCrae and his first wife, Annie Geraldine (Nancy) Adams. Georgiana McCrae was her great-grandmother and the poet Dorothy (Dorothea?) McCrae (Mrs Perry), who collaborated with the illustrator Edith Alsop , her aunt. Mahdi’s younger sister Georgiana Rose McCrae , known as 'Smee’, was also a cartoonist and illustrator; her elder sister, Dorothea Huntly (Mrs Norman Cowper, later Lady Cowper), known as Honey, was one of the Turramurra Wall Painters and later a potter. Her father’s lifelong friend, Norman Lindsay , taught Mahdi to draw. Mahdi McCrae contributed cartoons to the Bulletin from 1918 until the 1930s, eg Catastrophe . This very stylish minimalist drawing of a young woman with a more stereotypical cartoon of an older woman in the background is captioned: '“What’s the matter?”/ “Fred!”/ “Killed? Wounded? Prisoner? Gassed?”/ “No! COMING BACK!”’ 7 March 1918, p11. An undertaker gag was published on 3 March 1927 and the “Vot a Vaste!” on 8 August 1927, p32. Five original Bulletin cartoons published 1934-35 are in ML (PX *D488), including one of a couple snogging outdoors, with the woman asking 'does rain stop play?’ She drew for Melbourne Punch in 1924-25, including a caricature of actor George Jennings (ill. Lindesay, WWW , 114) and a fresh version of the old broken-down car gag 1925 (ill. Lindesay 1979, 175). Her Smith’s Weekly cartoons include: 'Lady (engaging cook): “Do you mean to say you were really with Mrs. Woolbags?”/ Cook: “Well, if you don’t believe me, Mum, you can see her monogram on me camisoles”’ 1 December 1923, p18; Things that might better have been left unsaid . '“You silly, silly old thing, Henry! If you think I have brains enough for two, why don’t you marry me?”’ 23 July 1927. Mahdi regularly contributed stylish drawings to Sydney Ure Smith 's Home magazine, mainly on the social page “Sydney s’amuse”. They include witty group caricatures, like Was it really Art for Art’s sake at the Society of Artists’ opening day?’-an 'impressionistic pattern of the Artists’ Ball with caricatures of participants, including Ronald McWilliam, her future husband, and artists Adrian Feint and Wanda Radford (September 1926, p34); a respectably-dressed group of participants in the 1927 Society of Artists’ exhibition (seen from the rear) followed by a view of their uninhibited fancy-dress selves at the Artists’ Ball that evening (1 October 1927, p28). She filled 'Sydney s’amuse’ with slightly exaggerated, usually quite flattering portrait heads of friends and acquaintances such as Thea Proctor and Hera Roberts . Her caricature of Pauline Watt of 1 February 1926 is less cruel than Elizabeth Mahony 's photograph of the same subject. Her own elegant silhouette appeared in 'Sydney s’amuse’ on 1 January 1927, 34, accompanying a report of her first solo show at the Sydney Art Salon in November 1926 where she showed 49 watercolours. Aussie magazine, which published many of Mahdi’s cartoons in the 1920s, stated in 1924 – when she was still only 19 – that her work showed 'an extraordinary delicacy of line and virility of form’. Certainly her cartoon characters were more stylised (and stylish) than her Home carticatures, including a self-portrait in a joke about the eternal problem of the portrait painter ( Aussie , 15 February 1928): “Call yourself an artist! I think it’s dreadful – I look like an orang-outang”. “Yes; but you should have thought of that before you began the sittings, madame!” The artist is identified by her hallmark Eton crop, and shirt and tie, also worn in a jaunty Cazneaux photograph in Home (1 September 1926). Among the many magazines for which she drew cartoons was Beckett’s Budget . Eg '(Little girl) “Where did you live before you came to 'us’, Daddy?”’ 23 August 1927, p12. For the New Triad , then being edited by her father, she drew the splendid cartoon of an androgynous couple fighting over their Christmas present clothing. Most of her cartoons were on Sydney society, particularly the many cartoons she drew for Aussie , eg 'Mother: “No! It’s not nice of you at all, Maude – I never told lies when I was a little girl.”/ Maude: “Goodness! How long was it before you started, Mum?” 15 July 1922, p10. (This seems her own gag since the title Backward is included within the drawing.) The issue of 15 January 1927 had three cartoons by Mahdi: (two women walking a dog on the beach) '“He’s simply unbearable in the house – refuses to cook his own breakfast.”/ “Then why don’t you make him eat it before he goes to bed”’; Vanity Bags [about men’s trousers] and Vain gentleman [in bathing suit] before passing ladies, and after [with chest, then belly], pp.15, 33 & 42. Later cartoons in Aussie include couple in evening dress published 15 February 1927, p33; 'Father: “See, baby is learning to walk”./ Social Mother: “Do you think it worth while to teach him? Practically, nobody walks nowadays!”'15 September 1927; and [two flappers undressing] '“Just fancy, they say that 5,000 lizards a year go to make up shoes for women.”/ “Isn’t it too marvellous what they train animals to do!”’ from the 'Undies’ number of Aussie 15 February 1928 (see Heritage ). Mahdi McCrae had two quite different cartooning and caricaturing styles in Aussie . One is close to fashion illustration in style and subject; the other – often featuring burglars, lawyers (14 January 1923, p21) and businessmen – is more realistic and darkly expressionist in mood, eg a drawing of two burglars in a dark street at night with one saying, “Well, night, night – be good!” Aussie 15 October 1927, p15. The same issue carried a stylish pair of 'before’ and 'after’ drawings in her comic linear style, She went out looking chic – and came back looking shicker (p45). Gags about working-class ignorance and fecundity were an inevitable part of her repertoire, yet they too could be given a sombre realist edge through the drawing, eg [thin mother with baby and toddler to visitor] “Yes, an’ just imagine her marrying a black-an’-white artist!”/ “Gracious heavings! Not one of those dreadful half-castes?” Aussie 1929, p21. Naturally, this dark mood is entirely absent in her fashion-conscious cartoons of brittle socialites and in her fashion illustrations. Like many young women, McCrae worked as a fashion illustrator for a while. Her first job was drawing advertisements for Farmers department store, as she recollected to Valerie Lawson: I was told not to put any expression in the models’ faces. I left to go to Woman because they had this horrible man who ran the advertising department who wouldn’t even say “Good morning”. Everyone was petrified of him but I wasn’t shy at all. I sat on the edge of his desk and said “I never want to work here again”. He said, “You’re nothing but a social butterfly. Get off my desk.” She remained at Woman for many years. Her cartoons appeared from the first issue, 6 December 1934. A full-page colour set of comic vignettes 'This [very Australian] Christmas!’ appeared on 27 December that year. She had a long-running comic strip in Woman , 'Michael and Chrystabel’, detailing the ups and downs of well-heeled married life. (example in Judd, Past Present ). She also illustrated books, including George Spaul’s fantasy tale, Where the Stars are Born (1942), Hauff’s Tales (of exotic Arabia) translated by Margaret H. Gallia (Sydney: William Brooks, 1950) and William Pacey’s stories of traffic rules for children, The Adventures of King Kobar (1954). An indefatigable, lifelong sketcher, Mahdi McCrae was capable of embarrassing friends even in old age with her habit of whipping out her sketchpad to capture fellow diners in a restaurant. A scrapbook of Mahdi original cartoons is held in private collection. Mahdi married Ronald A. McWilliam in 1930. She died on 23 June 1990, aged 85. Her three daughters, including Vivian (Vivienne?) Alcaine and Dorothy McWilliam survived her. Writers: Kerr, JoanJudd, Craig Date written: 1995 Last updated: 1992

Born

b. 28 November 1905

Summary

Mid 20th century painter, cartoonist and commercial artist. Her parents' great friend Norman Lindsay taught her to draw and throughout the course of her career she contributed to many publications including the Bulletin, Home, Aussie, Woman and Smith's Weekly.

Gender

Female

Died

23-Jun-90

Age at death

85