Self portrait by Nora Heysen was painted in 1938. It is an oil painting on canvas, 43 cm tall and 36 cm wide.

It is of Nora is her early 20s. It shows her head and shoulders. She’s gazing straight out on a minimal burnt-umber background. Her dark brown hair, parted in the middle, neatly frames her oblong face, covering her ears and tied behind her neck.

She has a prominent forehead, her right eyebrow forming a higher arch than the left, and her blue-grey eyes are large. The right eye’s gaze drifts wider than the centre.

Her nose is straight, her cheekbones flushed pale pink and her full rose-pink lips are closed. She has a wide neck and wears a powder-blue handknitted sweater with a modest, rolled collar. Around her shoulders hangs a thick chocolatey-brown overcoat. Light falls evenly over her face casting soft shadows.

Audio description written by Marina Neilson and voiced by Annette Twyman