His prolific career extended from his first job as a political cartoonist for the then-Melbourne Age in 1969 through to his last cartoon in The Age earlier this year, and he was named a living treasure by the National Trust in the 1990s.
“The pen has run dry, its ink no longer flowing — yet Mr Curly and his ducks will remain etched in our hearts, cherished and eternal,” Leunig’s studio said, in a post on Instagram announcing his death.
“Michael Leunig passed away peacefully today, in the early hours of December 19, 2024.
“During his final days, he was surrounded by his children, loved ones, and sunflowers — accompanied as ever, by his dear old friends, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.”
Age editor Patrick Elligett said Leunig was a “master of his craft and a near-permanent fixture on the fridge doors and dining tables of the nation”.
“His passing will be mourned by millions, and felt acutely by readers of The Age, who for 55 years had the privilege of enjoying his work and wit,” Elligett said, in a statement published by the paper.
“We are thinking of his friends and family at this difficult time. Farewell, Michael.”
Leunig, the son of a slaughterman, was born in 1945 in East Melbourne and worked as a factory labourer and meat worker before starting life as a cartoonist.
He named Enid Blyton, Phantom comics, The Book of Common Prayer, JD Salinger, Spike Milligan, Private Eye magazine and The Beatles among his early influences.
According to the biography on his website, Leunig has spoken on-stage with the Archbishop of Canterbury and an Indonesian president, painted and read poetry at the Sydney Opera House and used his pen to strongly oppose the “war on terror” declared after 9/11.
“Distracted and embittered by the destructive, polarised cultural climate and the morbidity of the dire political events during this time his work showed a decline in the more lyrical or gentle themes and he stopped drawing his whimsical characters Mr Curly and Vasco Pyjama,” it reads.
His later work more often focused on controversial themes, including criticisms of mandatory vaccination policies and “woke” culture.
Leunig worked at The Age, part of the same Nine media group as this website, until earlier this year, when his contract was not renewed in what the cartoonist called a “throat-cutting exercise”.
Through Leunig’s work, we have contemplated life’s beautiful and occasionally baffling moments: Mr Curly arriving home to his curly-headed family; a simple soul dreaming of floating coloured petals; and a father and son watching the sun set on TV, oblivious to the real thing happening outside their window,” Age Spectrum editor Lindy Percival wrote at the time.
“All the while, his angels have looked on – often in sorrow, sometimes in anger, but always with love.”