PublishedFremantle Press, March 2019 |
ISBN9781925815207 |
FormatSoftcover, 384 pages |
Dimensions22.9cm × 15.2cm × 2.5cm |
Hahndorf artist Nora Heysen was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize, and Australia's first female painter to be appointed as an official war artist. A portraitist and a flower painter, Nora Heysen's life was defined by an all-consuming drive to draw and paint.
In 1989, aged 78, Nora re-emerged on the Australian art scene as the nation's major art institutions restored her position after years of artistic obscurity. Extensively researched by the author, Nora Heysen- a portrait is the first biography of the artist, and it has been enthusiastically embraced by the Heysen family.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
We all know about Hans Heysen, the South Australian artist famous for his watercolours of gum trees, we know less about his daughter Nora. She was an artist too, and a great one, with some noteable firsts. The first woman to win the famous Archibald Prize for portraiture (in 1938). In 1943 she was appointed to be our first official woman war artist, and produced 62 wonderful paintings and 102 drawings of our women’s services in the Pacific theatre of war. Her beautiful flower paintings, and her still lifes, are probably her most intimate works. Her friends included artists Camille Pissaro (through his daughter) and Jeffrey Smart. Her life was unconventional and fragmented, and very interesting to anyone who wants to understand the life of an artist. This fascinating book, with colour reproductions of Nora Heysen’s works, will make a wonderful gift.
Marijke is the Customer Service Supervisor at Boffins and has been a Boffin for over five years, and a bird fanatic for even longer. She reads anything interesting.
This biography of one of Australia’s premier woman artists restores her to her rightful place in our history.
