[1] Pugh had won the same prize the year before for a portrait of Australia's 18th Prime Minister John McEwen.

[2] Art critic Sasha Grishin describes the painting as "outstanding for its vibrancy, expressive characterisation and energetic brushwork.

"[3] Pugh was sometimes described by contemporaries as "the court painter to the [Australian] Labor Party (ALP).

"[4] Pugh started the work before Whitlam was elected the ALP Prime Minister in 1972.

"[5] In the end, after a dozen false starts, [Pugh] decided Whitlam was strong and confident, though with an eye more on a place in history than on the present, and painted him that wayAfter Whitlam's dismissal from office by the Governor-General, Whitlam refused to sit for an official portrait to sit in Parliament House[citation needed] and requested that Pugh's portrait be hung instead.