Geoffrey Legge (b. 1935) and Frank Watters (1934–2020) ran Watters Gallery in Darlinghurst from 1964 to 2018. Watters grew up in a working-class milieu in Muswellbrook and left school at fifteen to work in the mines. Having developed an interest in art he moved to Sydney and found work with Barry Stern, one of the city's few commercial gallerists at the time. Legge was born in Uganda and educated at Charterhouse, Surrey, before coming to Australia, where he studied economics at the University of Melbourne. In 1963 he rented a house next door to Stern's gallery and began hanging around there; in due course, he and Watters decided to open their own gallery in Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst. Legge, deferring to Watters' more practised eye for art, insisted that the gallery be named Watters. In 1969 the gallery moved to a former pub in Riley Street, where it became an intellectual and artistic hub.
Anne Zahalka's photograph of the pair – part of her series of portraits of significant Australian art collectors – was taken at Watters’ flat, which occupied the rooftop of the gallery building.
Purchased 2021
© Anne Zahalka/Copyright Agency, 2022
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
