Olaf L Harris Pixie O'Harris

For the 1943 Archibald Prize, Olaf Lucas Harris submitted a portrait of his sister Pixie O’Harris (1903-1991), born Rhona Olive Harris.

An artist herself, O’Harris is renowned as a children’s book author and illustrator. She is also known for mural projects in children’s hospital wards, clinics and nurseries, and, in 1945, would enter two of these in the Sulman Prize.

Olaf’s and Pixie’s father was the artist George Frederick Harris, who was instrumental in the establishment of the Archibald Prize and exhibited in the 1921 and 1922 competitions.

The Harris family believe that the work pictured here is Olaf Harris’s Archibald entry. The portrait shows O’Harris with one of the fairy characters that made her so popular with Australian readers.