Nora Heysen

Nora Heysen AM (11 Jan 1911 – 30 Dec 2003) was an Australian artist, and the first woman to win the coveted Archibald Prize in 1938, for her portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman. The daughter of Sir Hans Heysen, Nora followed in her father’s footsteps as a painter – studying art from 1926 to 1930, at the School of Fine Arts in Adelaide and in London 1934-1937.

In 1943, she became the first woman appointed as an Australian war artist, serving at the rank of Captain in New Guinea. Later in life after a fruitful early career, Nora was quoted saying that she lived in “comfortable obscurity”.