Nora Heysen

Nora Heysen
Photograph of Heysen by Harold Cazneaux, 1939, Sydney
Born	11 January 1911 Hahndorf, South Australia
Died	30 December 2003 Sydney
Education	School of Fine Arts, Adelaide Julian Ashton School, Sydney
Known for	WWII, 1st woman Australian war artist 1st woman to win Archibald Prize
Notable work	Madame Elink Schuurman 1938
Spouse(s)	Dr. Robert Black
Awards	Order of Australia (AM) Melrose Prize for Portraiture Archibald Prize Australia Council Award for Achievement in the Arts

Nora Heysen AM (11 January 1911 – 30 December 2003) was an Australian artist, the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1938 for portraiture and the first Australian woman appointed as an official war artist.

Heysen was born in Hahndorf, South Australia as the fourth child of landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen and was raised at The Cedars in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. She studied art from 1926 to 1930 at the School of Fine Arts in Adelaide under F. Millward Grey and sold paintings to the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1930. From 1930 to 1933, she continued to study two days a week at the School, and worked in her own studio the rest of the time. In 1931 she visited Sydney with her parents, and spent two weeks studying at the Julian Ashton School.

Heysen's first solo exhibition was held in Sydney in 1933. In 1934 she travelled to London with her family, remaining in Europe, after they returned home, 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 12 October 1943 she became the first woman to be appointed as an Australian war artist at the rank of captain. "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". During her service Heysen completed over 170 works of art and was discharged from service in 1946 in New Guinea.