The Australian born artist Hilda Rix (1884-1961) was living and working in France when war broke out in 1914. She abandoned her studio at the Etaples artists’ colony and fled to London with her widowed mother and her older sister Elsie. Many of her pictures were left
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New Zealand born Cyril Ballard enlisted in the A.I.F in Sydney in 1916, aged 28. He was a records clerk, living quietly in the Northern Beaches suburb of Narrabeen with his wife Harriet and two children. Lance Corporal Ballard served in France as a machine gunner. His
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So much has been written about William Dobell’s controversial portrait of his friend and fellow artist Joshua Smith. It was awarded the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1943, but branded by many as a caricature due to Smith’s exaggerated features. A law suit followed, brought by two unsuccessful
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Isn’t this a striking, full length portrait? The subject is Tasmanian born artist Florence Rodway. It was completed by her friend and fellow artist Norman Carter (1875-1963), in 1910. Unfortunately no colour version exists. The first mention of the portrait in the press was in 1911; Mr
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Artist Arthur Streeton went to live at Glenbrook, in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, for several months in 1891. For a pound a week he had rented four roomed Daisy Cottage, located by the station master’s house. His original intention was to paint a
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I was a bit disappointed when Blackheath’s Altitude Café moved last year, even if it was only next door. It had lost some of its ambience I thought. However, when I called in some time later everything had changed. One whole wall was devoted to a series
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When Australian artist and writer Norman Lindsay first saw what was to become his home near Springwood in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, the sandstone cottage was sadly neglected. The floor boards were full of white ants. Nevertheless, Lindsay reported to his wife (and
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