Nora Heysen

Nora Heysen

Photograph of Heysen by Harold Cazneaux, 1939, Sydney
Born 11 January 1911
Hahndorf, South Australia
Died 30 December 2003
Sydney
Education School of Fine Arts, Adelaide
Julian Ashton School, Sydney
Known for WWII, 1st woman Australian war artist
1st woman to win Archibald Prize
Notable work Madame Elink Schuurman 1938
Spouse(s) Dr. Robert Black
Awards Order of Australia (AM)
Melrose Prize for Portraiture
Archibald Prize
Australia Council Award for Achievement in the Arts

Nora Heysen AM (11 January 1911 – 30 December 2003) was an Australian artist, the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1938 for portraiture and the first Australian woman appointed as an official war artist.

Biography

Heysen was born in Hahndorf, the fourth child of South Australian landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen. She was raised at The Cedars in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. She studied art from 1926 to 1930, at the School of Fine Arts in Adelaide, under F. Millward Grey and sold paintings to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1930. From 1930 to 1933, she continued to study two days a week at the School, and worked in her own studio the rest of the time. In 1931 she visited Sydney with her parents, and spent two weeks studying at the Julian Ashton School.[1]

Her first solo exhibition was held in Sydney in 1933. In 1934 she travelled to London with her family, remaining in Europe, after they returned home, until 1937 studying and painting. When she returned to Australia she returned briefly to Adelaide and then moved to Sydney.

In 1938 she entered two portraits in the Archibald Prize. Her portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman was awarded the prize and she became the first woman to win the Archibald.[2] There was a controversy involving criticism of her win by painter Max Meldrum. On 12 October 1943 she became the first women to be appointed as an Australian war artist at the rank of captain. "I was commissioned to depict the women's war effort. There was that restriction on what I did. So I was lent around to all the services, the air force, the navy and the army, to depict the women working at everything they did during the war".[3] During her service Heysen completed over 170 works of art and was discharged from service in 1946 in New Guinea.

While in New Guinea Nora met Dr Robert Black, whom she would marry in 1953. Following her discharge from war service she went to London, returning to Sydney in 1948. She continued to paint, exhibit and travel with her husband. In 1993 she was awarded the Australia Council's Award for Achievement in the Arts and on 26 January 1998 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to art.

Her works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the National Library of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery and several state galleries.

Reception

A 1939 article in The Australian Women's Weekly ran with the headline "Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook" [4] and lists three of Heysen's favourite recipes along with her strategies for achieving domestic duties and leaving time for painting.

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ Australian Art: Artist: Heysen, Nora
  2. ↑ "Archibald Prize". AGNSW prize record. Art Gallery of New South Wales. 1938. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  3. ↑ From an interview with Nora Heysen, 25 August 1994, Oral History Collection National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook.". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 4 February 1939. p. 4. Retrieved 15 November 2014.

References

Further reading

Awards
Preceded by
Normand Baker		 Archibald Prize
1938
for Mme. Elink Schuurman 		Succeeded by
Max Meldrum
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