Brian James Dunlop (1938-2009), Zelman Cowen (detail), 1981, Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection. View full image
Governor-General, 8 December 1977 to 29 July 1982
Lawyer, scholar, educator, but most of all, healer, Zelman Cowen (1919-2011) faced a difficult task in following the controversial John Kerr as Governor-General. He succeeded admirably, gaining respect from Australians of all political persuasions and stabilising a damaged office.1
Melbourne-born, Cowen was the only son of Russian emigree Bernard Cohen and his wife Sara. Their surname was changed to ‘Cowen’ soon after Zelman’s birth.2 He graduated in arts and law from the University of Melbourne in 1939 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1941, which he deferred to enlist in the RAN. Cowen was serving in Darwin at the time of the Japanese attacks. In 1945, he married Anna Wittner with whom he had four children. That same year Cowen commenced studies at Oxford, completing a degree in civil law and becoming a lecturer and a fellow of Oriel College (1947-51). In 1951, at just 31 years of age, Cowen became Dean of Law at the University of Melbourne. He held this post until 1966, and held appointments as a visiting professor at various universities in the USA. Cowen went on to serve as Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England (1967-70) and at the University of Queensland (1970-77).
Cowen was appointed as Governor-General in December 1977. At his first press conference, he expressed the hope that as Governor-General he would ‘bring a touch of healing to the country and its people’.3 This reflected his belief that the Governor-General ‘has an opportunity to promote unity and heal divisions, as against the passions and rancour of partisan politics’.4 To achieve this, Cowen sought to broaden the role and make it more visible. In five years, he gave almost 700 public speeches and visited many community groups. As a lover of music, he once joyfully recalled that a member of his security detail developed an appreciation of Mozart ‘after he had attended so many concerts with the Cowens’.5
Cowen declined an offered extension of his term as Governor-General and took up the role of Provost of Oriel College in 1982. Returning to Australia in 1990, he became chairman of the Fairfax media group and patron of the St Kilda Football Club. In later life, Cowen advocated for Australia to become a republic. His successor, Ninian Stephen, praised him in 1997, saying Cowen did ‘more than any Governor-General before or since to establish a real and significant role for the holders of Australian vice-regal office’.6 Cowen died in 2011 and his state funeral was attended by public figures and politicians from all parties. Several awards and a scholarship have been established in his honour.
Brian James Dunlop
Realist painter Brian Dunlop (1938-2009) was born in Sydney to English immigrants and studied at the East Sydney Technical College. In 1958, while still studying, he won the Robert Le Gay Brereton Memorial Prize for drawing. During the early 1960s, Dunlop travelled to Europe and was inspired by the humanist values of the Renaissance artists. He returned to Sydney where he taught part-time at the National Art School whilst exhibiting in the major cities. Throughout the 1970s, he continued to regularly exhibit, winning Canberra’s Civic Permanent Art Award in 1976 and 1977, and the Sulman Prize in 1981. Following an artist residency at the University of Melbourne, Dunlop relocated to Tuscany where he studied the Renaissance artists and travelled to Rome, Greece, Morocco, Mallorca, and India. Throughout his career Dunlop painted over 90 portraits of various public figures, including a commissioned portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in 1984. In his latter years, Dunlop lived and worked between Melbourne and Port Fairy on the south-west Victorian coast, the landscape being his principal inspiration. His works are held in private collections and numerous state and national collections.7
Zelman Cowen
by Brian James Dunlop
1981
Oil on canvas
105.2 x 105.2
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collection
References
1. Information in this biography has been taken from: B Carroll, Australia’s Governors-General: From Hopetoun to Jeffery, Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, Kenthurst, NSW, 2004; Z Cowen, A Public Life: The Memoirs of Zelman Cowen, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2006; C Sampford and CA Bois, A life in the law: Sir Zelman Cowen, Prospect, St Leonards, 1997; H Veitch, ‘Chosen for the role of healer’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 2011, p. 19; WG Walker, ed., A Touch of Healing: Speeches by Sir Zelman Cowen 1977–1982, Volume I: Society, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1986; ‘Sir Zelman Cowen, Academic, Statesman, Queen’s Counsel (1919–2011)’, Archive of Australian Judaica, the University of Sydney; ‘Her Majesty’s knight turned republican’, The Australian Jewish News, 29 October 1999, p. 14; ‘Sir Zelman’s “touch of healing”’, The Australian Jewish News, 8 October 2004, p. 20. Websites accessed 30 April 2021.
2. M Kirby, ‘Cowen, Sir Zelman’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 26 August 2021.
3. Cowen, op. cit., p. 308.
4. Ibid., p. 309.
5. Veitch, op. cit.
6. N Stephen, in Sampford and Bois, op. cit., p. x.
7. Information in this biography has been taken from: J Mendelssohn, ‘Brian Dunlop’, Design & Art Australia Online, 2015; ‘Brian Dunlop’, Australian Galleries; ‘Brian Dunlop 1938–2009’, National Portrait Gallery. Websites accessed 25 March 2021.