Arnold Joseph Victor Shore The Hon Mr Justice Evatt

The subject of this portrait by Arnold Shore is politician and judge Herbert ‘Bert’ Vere Evatt (1894-1965). It has sometimes mistakenly been referred to as a portrait of his younger brother, Clive Raleigh Evatt, who also served on the judiciary.

Born in 1897, Shore studied at Melbourne’s National Gallery School and briefly with tonalist Max Meldrum. However, he soon began painting works strongly influenced by post-impressionism, particularly Paul Cézanne. In 1932, he opened a school with modernist artist George Bell. It was around that time that Shore met Doc Evatt, as he was known, and his wife Mary Alice Evatt (1898–1973), both spirited supporters of modern art. They provided Shore with his first commission: this portrait shown in the 1935 Archibald Prize.

The work is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, with the title HV (Doc) Evatt.