One of Australia’s most accomplished portrait artists, Nora Heysen AM is the daughter of landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen and his wife Selma, herself also a talented artist. While still a student at the School of Fine Arts in Adelaide, Nora Heysen had work purchased by the state galleries of New South Wales and South Australia. She went to London in 1934, studying at the Central School of Art and the Byam Shaw School before returning to Australia and winning the 1938 Archibald Prize – the first woman to do so. In 1943 she became the first woman appointed to work as an official war artist. While in New Guinea she met Dr Robert Black (1917–1988), who she married in Sydney in 1953. Professor of Tropical Medicine in the Commonwealth Institute of Health, University of Sydney from 1963 to 1982, his research and work with the World Health Organisation was instrumental in controlling malaria in the armed forces in Australia and in developing countries. This portrait was painted at their home in College Street, Sydney, and includes a view of the Port Jackson figs in Hyde Park, seen from their balcony.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 1999. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Lou Klepac
Nora Heysen AM (1 portrait)
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