Up Front portraits

Nora Heysen
WAAAF cook (Corporal Joan Whipp) 1945
oil on canvas 82.4 x 64.4 cm
ART24394

During the Second World War women undertook a broad range of activities as part of the war effort. Joan Whipp served with the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) as a cook

Stella Bowen's painting of the Australian crew of a Sunderland flying boat was painted in England during the Second World War. In this work the artist establishes links between the crew members, their aircraft and the landscape.

Napier Waller
RAN! (Australian Sailor)1942 watercolour over pastel and pencil 76.2 x 57.5 cm
Australian War Memorial

This drawing was one of a series of portraits published in a popular magazine during the Second World War. Here Waller idealises an ordinary sailor to represent Australia's fighting spirit.

Photographer unknown, Australian soldiers in front of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, Egypt [c.1915]
gelatin silver photograph printed as postcard 14.1 x 9.0 cm. Australian War Memorial

During the First World War many Australian soldiers travelled overseas for the first time. They often had their photographs taken in front of popular tourist destinations as souveniers.

W.B. McInnes
Captain Ross Smith 1920 oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.8 cm
ART03179l

Captain Ross Smith (1892-1922) served with the Australian Flying Corps during the First World War and remains Australia's most decorated serviceman. In 1919 he and his brother became the first aviators to fly from England to Australia within thirty days.