Beatrice (Bee) Miles (1902–1973) was a well-known Sydney street personality. As a young woman she had abandoned her studies at the University of Sydney and turned her back on an oppressively respectable – and sometimes violent – upbringing. An atheist and advocate of free love, her only significant relationship ended when she was 38. Thereafter, she became known for her anarchic conduct in public places, although she did carry a board advertising her willingness to recite Shakespeare for a fee. She loved tram and taxi travel, though she rarely paid, and often hurled herself at vehicles refusing to carry her. She frequented the Public Library of New South Wales until being banned from the building in the late 1950s. As documented in this drawing by Roderick Shaw, Miles was usually seen wearing a tennis visor and a greatcoat. The drawing is posthumous and based on a photograph, and was commissioned for an exhibition in 1976. Miles was nevertheless an apt subject for Shaw, who was a founding member of Artists for Democracy and of Artists Against Nuclear War and who is known for his social realist paintings on themes such as work and urban life.
Gift of Brian Griffin 2000
© Estate of Rod Shaw
Brian Griffin (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
An exploration of Bee Miles' defining characteristic.
Michael Desmond explores what makes a portrait subject significant.
