Shared Experience: Nora Heysen (1911–2003)
Art and War
Heysen studied with F. Millward Grey in Adelaide and later at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London with Byam Shaw. In 1938 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture and, in 1943, the first woman to be appointed an official war artist. Working for two years in New Guinea and Australia, she produced exceptionally fine portraits of women engaged in war activities.