George Edmond Finey (16 March 1895 – 8 June 1987) was an Australian illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist. Born in New Zealand, he was most active as a black-and-white artist in Sydney from 1920 to the mid-1940s, during which time he worked for Smith's Weekly, the Labor Daily, the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers and publications. The left-wing pacifist and humanist viewpoint in his political cartoons were the subject of criticism and censure from both the left and right during his career, but Finey remained uncompromising in his political views.
During his period with Smith's Weekly in the 1920s Finey developed outstanding skills as a caricaturist, a category of his art practice for which he was especially admired in his lifetime. The journal Art in Australia dedicated an entire issue to his caricatures in June 1931. Finey moved to the Blue Mountains in 1942. In his later artistic career Finey was known for his expressionistic and mixed media paintings and sculpture.
Biography
Early years
George Edmond Finey was born on 16 March 1895 in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, New Zealand, one of eleven children of English-born mariner, Solomon ('Harry') Finey, and his wife Rose Emily (née Newton).Peter Spearritt (2007), George Edmond Finey (1895–1987), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 1 September 2025.Heritage (May-June 2023), Newsletter of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural Heritage Organisations Inc., May–June 2023, Issue 86, 'George Edmond Finey (1895-1987)', pages 15-19.
By the time he was aged fourteen Finey began selling his drawings to local Auckland newspapers.
From 1912 to 1914, while working as an apprentice lithographer at the New Zealand Herald, Finey studied part-time at Auckland's Elam School of Art, sharing a studio with other artists (including Unk White).George Finey, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 1 September 2025.
War service
Finey enlisted in the New Zealand Army Service Corps on 25 August 1915. In November 1915 he travelled to Egypt with the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force (N.Z.E.F.), where he served as a driver in the Transport Corps. In April 1916 he embarked for France, where he served on the Western Front.Finey, George Edmond – WW1 5/509 – Army, World War I Service Records, Archives New Zealand website; accessed 1 September 2025. Finey was wounded in 1917 and suffered burns from exposure to mustard gas.
Finey was promoted to sergeant in October 1918. After the Armistice Finey was attached to the New Zealand War Records office in London. He was hospitalised with influenza in January 1919 and transferred to the army's Education Department in April. During his deployment Finey was appointed an official war artist with the N.Z.E.F.'Introducing Our Artists', War Cartoons, Consolidated Press Ltd., December 1940, page 1. During a period of leave Finey spent three months studying in the School of Art at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London. During that period he was influenced by the political caricatures in the German magazines Simplicissimus and Jugend.Sydney Ure Smith & Leon Gellert (eds.) (1931), page 7. Finey was repatriated to New Zealand in August 1919, departing from England aboard the Tainui and arriving at Wellington on 21 September 1919.
Finey remained in his homeland for only a short time, finding no prospects for work and feeling constrained by the conformity of New Zealand society. He left for Sydney in November 1919.
Smith's Weekly
After arriving in Sydney Finey had several of his cartoons accepted by The Bulletin magazine.The Sydney Art Society's..., The Bulletin (Sydney), 15 July 1920, page 34. His cartoons were included in the June 1920 issue of Aussie: The Cheerful Monthly.Aussie, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 19 June 1920, page 23. In July 1920 Finey's pencil and charcoal sketches, described as "vigorous" and "full of movement", were exhibited at the Sydney Art Society's students' show.
Drawings and cartoons by Finey began to regularly appear in Smith's Weekly from September 1920.A tiny creature..., Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 18 September 1920, page 23.The Alderkids and A Full-dress Debate, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 25 September 1920, page 9. By early in 1921 the art editor at Smith's Weekly, Alec Sass, agreed for him to became a staff artist, initially on a salary of nine pounds per week.Vane Lindesay (1970), The Inked-In Image, Melbourne: Heinemann . In about February 1921 an agreement was signed under which Finey was employed "in the capacity of artist and cartoonist" on the staff of Smith's Weekly for five years from 1 March 1921 "and thereafter until the expiration of the agreement".In Equity, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 1926, page 8. Finey's early contributions to the newspaper were mainly joke cartoons.Examples: Artist: "Those are wood nymphs.", Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 2 October 1920, page 24; Teacher (reading), Smith's Weekly, 13 November 1920, page 24.
After a mock ceremony performed by fellow-artist Percy Lindsay, George Finey and Nellie ('Nat') Phoebe Murray were married on 25 March 1922 at St. Clement's Anglican church in Mosman.Person – George Finey, The New Theatre website; accessed 4 September 2025. The couple had seven children.Family records, Ancestry.com.
In September 1922 the first of a pair of Finey's characteristic caricatures began to be published in Smith's Weekly, in the 'Gossip from Here, There, and Everywhere' section of the newspaper. The first to be published, in the 25 September 1922 issue, were caricatures of William Brooks, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and James Dooley, premier of New South Wales from October to December 1921.William Brooks / James Dooley, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 25 February 1922, page 15.
In the words of Lionel Lindsay, under Finey's hand "the human countenance becomes elastic", adding: "Without truce or mercy he shapes it anew, yet preserves a curious memory of the original".Sydney Ure Smith & Leon Gellert (eds.) (1931), page 20. George Blaikie, a Smith's Weekly journalist, described Finey as "a man of fearless spirit [who] would not be sway by hope of heaven or fear of hell from portraying people as he personally interpreted them". Finey's caricature of Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and a controversial figure at the time, was published in March 1922, after deliberation by the Smith's Weekly newspaper owners. Blaikie wrote that Finey's "critical" caricature emphasised Mannix's "severe, ... intolerant and unhappy characteristics".George Blaikie (1967), pages 72-73.Archbishop Mannix, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 18 March 1922, page 15.
In late 1922 Finey began a series of transformation caricatures, in comic strip format, showing the process to turning a face into a caricature, the remoulding of one face to another, or the reshaping of an object into a face.Examples: A Caricaturist at Work, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 2 December 1922, page 17; Doing His Block, Smith's Weekly, 9 December 1922, page 17; From Hughes to Bruce, Smith's Weekly, 17 February 1923, page 15. The first of these, 'A Caricaturist at Work', was published on 25 November 1922.A Caricaturist at Work, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 25 November 1922, page 15.
Finey was one of twenty-five foundation members of the Black and White Artists' Society, formed in July 1924, and was elected as a committee member.Black-and-White Artists, The Sun (Sydney), 18 July 1924, page 8.Black and White Artists, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 1925, page 9. He remained prominent in its activities until shortly before he died. Fellow Smith's artist Stan Cross nominated Finey as "the greatest of Australia's newspaper artists".George Blaikie (1967), page 64. Blaikie remembered him as an unkempt sandal-wearing bohemian, fearlessly honest in his work, and notoriously generous.George Blaikie (1967), pages 73-74.
In May 1925 Finey's employment contract was updated, whereby he was employed as an artist and cartoonist on the staff of Smith's Weekly and The Daily Guardian for the following five years.
In late November 1925 Finey and his fellow cartoonist, Lance Driffield, were served with an injunction by their employer, Smith's Newspapers Ltd., restraining them from proceeding with a planned selling exhibition of their artwork at Swain's Gallery in Sydney. Smith's Weekly claimed ownership of the original drawings, arguing that they had paid the cartoonists to draw them and also supplied the materials for them to do so. Finey countered that Smith's Weekly had acquired copyright of his artwork, but not ownership of the originals.Timothy S. Benson (2015), Over the Top: A Cartoon History of Australia at War, Melbourne; Scribe Publications, page 14.Cartoonist's Work, The Argus (Melbourne), 1 December 1925, page 5.
A hearing was commenced in the Equity Court in September 1926 before Justice Long Innes. On 1 October 1926 the terms of settlement of the case were announced, settled out of court due to Finey being unable to continue the case because of the costs. The terms represented a complete victory for Smith's Weekly. Finey was restrained from infringing the company's copyright in the works in question, or from selling or distributing them without the consent of the company.Cartoons Copyright, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 2 October 1926, page 10. However Finey did "claim a pyrrhic victory", having established that ownership of the artwork rested with the artist if the value of the drawing was of great value than the materials used in producing it. Having run out of funds on the court case and with a young family at home, Finey was permitted to return to work at Smith's Weekly.Post-trial cartoons: Govt. Control, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 16 October 1926, page 12; ...sword swallower..., Smith's Weekly, 23 October 1926, page 10.
From July 1928 Finey's left-leaning political views began to be featured in Smith's Weekly, in regular features with a variety of titles such as 'Finey's Potted Comment on the Week' and 'The World Through Finey's Eye'.Examples: Finey's Potted Comment on the Week, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 21 July 1928, page 20; The World Through Finey's Eye, Smith's Weekly, 11 August 1928, page 20; Finey's Outlook on Life, Smith's Weekly, 12 January 1929, page 23 Finey's featured political cartoons continued through the early months of the Great Depression until about April 1930.Examples: Artist George Finey Solves it all in Black and White, Smith's Weekly (Sydney), 15 March 1930, page 23; Cartoons by George Finey, Smith's Weekly, 26 April 1930, page 22. Finey, who described his left-wing sympathies as "truthfulness", became known around the offices of Smith's Weekly as 'the Bolshie'.
Newspaper work