Judy Cassab Portrait of Professor Bruce Williams

This portrait of academic Bruce Rodda Williams (1919–2010), from the 1972 Archibald Prize, is now in the University Art Collection in the Chau Chak Wing Museum at The University of Sydney.

It is one of two portraits by Judy Cassab of Williams in the University Art Collection; the other, depicting Williams in his vice-chancellor’s robes, is from 1973 and was not exhibited in the Archibald Prize. Williams served as vice-chancellor of the university from 1967 to 1981.

Cassab knew from a young age she would be an artist; however, her studies were interrupted by the Nazi occupation of Vienna. Arriving in Australia, she found the acceptance of women as professional artists a difficult path to navigate. Nonetheless, she went on to win the Archibald Prize in 1960 and again in 1967.