Reginald Jerrold-Nathan Lady Hallstrom

The subject of this portrait is artist Margaret Elliott Jaffrey (1887–1968). She was the first wife of Sir Edward John Lees Hallstrom (1886–1970), a manufacturer and philanthropist who played an important role in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and who was himself the subject of three Archibald portraits over the years, by Lyall Trindall (1948), Charles Lonergaran (1951) and William Pidgeon (1959).

Following studies at London’s Royal Academy under John Singer Sargent and William Orpen, Reginald Jerrold-Nathan (1889–1979) was an established portrait painter when he arrived in Sydney in 1924. Having painted members of the royal families of England, Denmark and Iraq, he was well-received in Sydney society.