Geoff Woodward Don Chipp

Leslie Donald Chipp (1925-2006) was a federal politician. He served as a Liberal MP from 1960 (including as a minister).

The year that this portrait was painted – 1977 – was a significant year for Chipp as he resigned from the Liberal Party in March and in May declared he would lead a new political organisation. He subsequently helped found a new political party, the Australian Democrats.

Woodward knew Chipp personally. Preliminary work on the portrait was done in Canberra. 'We had two other sittings in Wagga, one when he was having a holiday break, and his wrinkles were nowhere near as pronounced when he was more relaxed, much to my disappointment since they were what attracted me to paint him in the first place,’ said Woodward years later.

In 2015, Woodward added text to the work – 'Keep the bastards honest’, which was how, in 1980, Chipp described the role of the Australian Democrats.