The First Female Winner of the Archibald - Nora Heysen's Portrait of Mme Schuurman, 1938

If I may show you just one more portrait from the history of the Archibald… It’s my absolute favourite and the story behind it is gold. It’s a portrait that broke the rules of the Archibald as well as rules of society. Mme Schuurman, the wife of a Dutch diplomat, painted by a remarkable Australian artist, Nora Heysen in 1938 was not “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics” as stipulated in the rules of the Archibald. She was just a charming, elegant socialite.

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Heysen’s bold choice of the model was dictated by the equally bold print of the exquisite Chinese gown.

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Years later, Heysen explained her choice for the portrait:

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“It wasn’t really eligible… Mme Elink Schuurman had no pretentions of being an outstanding Australian, distinguished in art, letters or science as the terms go. She was just a social butterfly and I used her to hang this beautiful Chinese cloak on… I wanted to paint this Chinese robe, it was a beautiful thing… they gave it [prize] to the woman because she looked beautiful and they were all men judges.”

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Thus, the portrait became the first ever Archibald awarded to a female artist. It caused an uproar. The newspaper headlines were hilarious and sad – a true reflection of their time (see img 3).

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After the win, Max Meldrum – a mildewy pillar of the Australian art establishment, said this in an interview:

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“If I were a woman, I would certainly prefer raising a healthy family to a career in art. Men and women are differently constituted and women are more closely attached to the physical things of life. They are not to blame. They cannot help it, and to expect them to do some things equally as well as men is sheer lunacy.”

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In this misogynistic onslaught, Meldrum totally missed the point. Everything came together in Heysen’s portrait in perfect aesthetic harmony – the porcelain magnificence of the Chinese silk, the green teardrop of the gemstone, the fleeting gesture of the delicate fingers – it is all just stunning perfection. It tore conventionality, the likes of Meldrum’s work, to shreds. Those judges just could not help themselves.

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The next time the Archibald was awarded to a woman would be 22 years later, in 1960.