It's a man's world: winning subjects by gender
It takes balls to win the Archibald. Quite literally. In the the prize's 96-year history, winning works depicting women have been a rarity. A portrait of a woman won in the prize's third year, but artist W. B. McInnes didn't bother to say who she was, simply calling his 1923 picture, Portrait of a Lady. Winning female subjects in recent years have included architect Penelope Seidler (painted by Fiona Lowry in 2014), Del Kathryn Barton with a self-portrait in 2008 and artist Janet Laurence (John Beard, 2007). The late Margaret Olley was the subject of two winning works six decades apart. She was painted by Ben Quilty in 2011 and by William Dobell in 1948.
Yep, definitely a man's world: winning artists by gender
Nora Heysen's win in 1938 upset the art world's boys' club. There were mutterings among disgruntled male competitors that women shouldn't be allowed to enter. Despite her early Archibald success, Heysen spent much of her career overshadowed by her famous father, the painter Hans Heysen. "Nora never really had a sense of what a great artist she could have been," Fairfax Media's art critic John McDonald says. "But she had real style."
It took 22 years for another woman to win (Judy Cassab with Stanislaus Rapotec in 1960). It's only in the last decade that female winners have become a regular event.
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But there is more to the preponderance of paintings of painters; these days it can be hard to convince anyone else to sit still for long enough. "In the past, people of distinction would commission a portrait and it was a paid job," McDonald says. "Now people don't have time to sit around for portraits ... Often, artists find that almost the only people prepared to sit for them for any length of time are other artists. What's more, if the portrait turns out to be ugly or awkward, another artist is going to understand."
Stick to the middle: winning artists by age
The youngest ever winner was Nora Heysen – also the first woman to take the prize. It was 1938 and she was 27 years old. Her portrait depicted Madame Elink Schuurman, the wife of a Dutch diplomat. The oldest was John Olsen, who was 77 when he won with Self-Portrait Janus-Faced in 2005. In the main though, the middle years are the most likely ones for Archibald glory, with more than half the winners aged between 36 and 55. "Artists begin to hit their peak in their late 30s and, by the time they're in their 50s, they should be painting as well as ever," McDonald says. "People are winning the Archibald at the peak of their abilities."
In one sense, a self-portrait is an easy option; no need to convince a sitter to pose. But there are some artistic challenges that come with painting yourself. "With self-portraits, they can be limited," McDonald says. "Artists are doing them in the mirror, so they're often painted with that three-quarter turn of the head, with one eye looking." There's more room to move in a portrait of someone else, so it's no surprise that the bulk of winners are artists painting other people.
In a a handful of winning works, the artist appears alongside other subjects, including Marcus Wills' The Paul Juraszek Monolith in 2006 and Francis Giacco's Homage to John Reichard in 1994.
Words by Louise Schwartzkoff
The Archibald Prize is at the Art Gallery of NSW, July 29-October 22.