Tamworth Regional Gallery - Permanent Collections

From the Collection
Nora Heysen AM Born 1911, Hahndorf, South Australia Died 2003, Sydney Australia. Camellias 1930 Oil on canvas Bequest of Mr. & Mrs. N. W. Burdekin 1961 “Camellias” is an excellent example of Heysen’s exquisite still life flower paintings. The grey curtain background, plain black vase and earth tones of the table are a sombre contrast to the brilliant and lustrous colours of the rich flower forms - each petal meticulously painted - shining with light falling from the right. The camellias are vast contrast to the pattern on the table which is suggested with simple ochre brushstrokes. Although painted when Nora Heysen was only 19 years of age, this work displays her mature technical skill and perhaps the influence of Henri Fantin Latour (French realist painter 1836 – 1904), whom she greatly admired. Nora was born in Hahndorf, South Australia, daughter of well known artist Sir Hans Heysen and his wife Selma. She was an artist of extraordinary ability, tenacity and possessed fine drawing skills. Nora displayed remarkable talent as a portrait painter, but is best known for her still-life paintings of flowers, which were part of her earliest memories of childhood in Hahndorf. After several years of study at the School of Fine Arts in Adelaide she traveled to London in 1934 where she studied at the Central School of Art. Heysen returned to Australia in 1937 and decided to live in Sydney. Her early drawings and paintings established her talent as a draughtsman; however, it was not until her meeting in London with post-impressionist painter Lucien Pisarro and subsequent study of the work of Cézanne, that her smooth, classical manner of painting gave way to a freer use of colour and more painterly handling of her materials. Nora was the first female artist to be awarded the Archibald Prize in 1938 with her portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman. Her skill as a portraitist also paved the way for her appointment as the first female Australian war artist on 12 October 1943. From April 1944 to December 1944 Captain Nora Heysen was stationed in New Guinea. During three years of service Heysen completed over 170 works of art now in the collection of the Australian War Memorial. In 1993 she was awarded the Australia Council’s Award for Achievement in the Arts and in 1998 the Order of Australia (AM) for her service to Art as a painter of portraits and still life subjects. Until her death in 2003, the artist lived and worked in her Hunters Hill home 'The Chalet', where she painted and drew with boundless energy and an amazing vitality of colour.