Florence Aline Rodway (Julian Ashton)

Florence Rodway entered three works into the inaugural Archibald Prize. We know that one of them was a portrait of Julian Ashton (1851–1942) based on newspaper reviews of the time.

Ashton founded what is now known as the Julian Ashton Art School in The Rocks district of Sydney in 1896, which provided training for numerous subsequently eminent artists. As a portraitist, landscape painter and illustrator, he was a respected artist in his own right and a leading advocate of impressionism in Sydney. A trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1889 to 1940, he was an influential figure in Sydney artistic circles.