John Thomas Rigby Miss Brenda Lister

The subject of this portrait by John Rigby is Brenda Lister (later Quilkey, born 1944).

Years later, she recalled: ‘I met John Rigby while I was working as a secretary at George Patterson Noble Bartlett Advertising in Brisbane. He was employed there as a commercial artist. It was probably 1964/65 that he approached me and asked if I would sit for him for a painting he was going to enter in the Archibald Prize. I knew nothing about the Archibald Prize but agreed to do it. There were not many sittings. John explained to me that portraits of people entered in the Archibald were at that time, according to tradition, required to be celebrities or public figures and since I had neither status he had no expectation of winning it but that he was going to enter it anyway.’

The work was one of 63 portraits from 267 entries selected by the Gallery trustees for the exhibition, with the prize being awarded to Clifton Pugh for a portrait of Rupert Henderson, one of the most powerful men in Australian media at that time.