Lyall Trindall NR MacKay, Esq

The subject of this portrait by Lyall Trindall is Norman Russell MacKay (1889–1960), the founder and managing director of the Silvarite Glass Company Ltd in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown. A portrait of his wife, Mrs NR MacKay or Rosina Sager, by the same artist was also hung in the 1929 Archibald Prize exhibition.

MacKay knew Trindall well and employed him as a designer for leadlight windows and mirror frames.

The year this work was painted (1929) was a traumatic one for MacKay: fire caused major damage to the Silvarite factory, his mother died in a house fire and his eldest child died after a school playground accident.