Federal funding leads to acquisition of rare First World War portraits

A grant of $100,000 from the Commonwealth Government has seen the Australian War Memorial expand its world-class art collection with the acquisition of a collection of rare portraits from the First World War.

The Minister for the Arts, the Hon. George Brandis QC, today announced the funding from the National Cultural Heritage Account to the Australian War Memorial for the purchase of a collection of nine portraits of First World War soldiers by Hilda Rix Nicholas (1894-1961).

Director of the Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, said the rare and important collection of drawings by Hilda Rix Nicholas will give audiences an insight into the personal experiences of Australians in the First World War.

“This collection of portraits by Hilda Rix Nicholas holds national significance as the only known surviving portraits of soldiers created by a leading Australian female artist during and in direct response to the First World War,” Dr Nelson said.

“The acquisition is particularly significant in light of this year’s commemorations of the ANZAC Centenary and underpins the mission of the Australian War Memorial to commemorate the Australian experience of war.”

Hilda Rix Nicholas was one of only a handful of Australian female artists of the period who depicted wartime subjects. Her works differ from traditional formal portraits of military leaders and the landscape or battle scenes typically depicted by official war artists. Instead, they will provide the Memorial’s audiences with considerable insight into the personal experiences of Australians in the First World War.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Senator the Honourable Michael Ronaldson, said he was extremely pleased the Cultural Heritage Account was able to support this major addition to the Memorial’s collected works.

“With almost 38,000 individual works, the Memorial’s art collection is among the most extensive in the country, and it is also one of the most significant collections of war art held in anywhere in the world,” the Minister said.

“It is the size and depth of this collection, which also includes military heraldry, technology, photographs, film, sound and archival material, which enables the Memorial to present the stories of those Australians who have served in war in an engaging and educative manner that attracts almost 1 million visitors a year.”

While the Hilda Rix Nicholas collection will not immediately go on display, the works are available to the public through the Memorial’s website.