Joshua Smith Dame Mary Gilmore

The subject of this portrait by Joshua Smith is the writer Dame Mary Gilmore (1865–1962). Originally, Gilmore was incorrectly spelled Gilmour in this work’s title. It is one of two portraits the artist pained of Gilmore for the Archibald Prize; the first was included in the 1943 Archibald Prize.

A contemporary of bush poet Henry Lawson – Gilmore was a passionate campaigner for a wide range of social reforms, including women’s suffrage and emancipation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Australia’s poor. A celebrated public figure and doyenne of Sydney’s literary world, she is featured on Australia’s $10 banknote. Portraits of Gilmore were included in the Archibald 11 times by eight artists.

Joshua Smith was dedicated to capturing the intrinsic personality of his sitters; his consummate skill as a draughtsman was honed through lessons with Adelaide Perry at Julian Ashton’s art school, following several years of study at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School). Despite his notable 67 Archibald portraits, painted over seven decades, the artist is now mostly remembered as the subject of William Dobell’s contentious 1943 winning work. The fact that his own portrait of Gilmore was the runner-up that year is largely unknown. Also forgotten is Smith’s 1944 win – for a painting of politician John Solomon Rosevear – which was seen by many as a consolation prize, as Dobell was, by then, a Gallery trustee and Archibald judge.

The work is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.