Noel Counihan Katharine Susannah Prichard

This portrait by Noel Counihan of writer Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) has previously been listed under various misspellings, including Katherine Sussanah Pritchard. The work is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Prichard devoted herself to the causes of international peace and socialism. She had an unsettled childhood, with her family enduring financial hardship, but matriculated from South Melbourne College. With the cost of university prohibitive and needing to earn a living, she became a governess and journalist. Prichard championed the underdog and the oppressed and, following the death of her brother during World War I, she campaigned against conscription and war. She became a foundation member of the Australian Communist Party and was later vilified by conservative politicians for her loyalty to the Russian people. From the 1940s, her popular novels followed the aesthetic conventions of socialist realism.

As a young man during the Depression, Counihan joined the Communist Party. Throughout his life, his art reflected his concern with social injustice and the human condition.