Nora Heysen

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Ruth (1933) by Nora Heysen

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

Heysen was the daughter of South Australian landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen. She was raised at Cedars in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. She began studying art in 1926, and sold paintings to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1930. Her first solo exhibition was held in Sydney in 1933. In 1934 she travelled to London with her family, remaining in Europe 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. There was a controversy involving criticism of her win by painter Max Meldrum. On October 12, 1943 she became the first women to be appointed as an Australian war artist. "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". ¹ 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 January 26, 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.

Note 1: From an interview with Nora Heysen, August 25 1994, Oral History Collection National Library of Australia.