Caroline Williams Georges Mora

Originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, Caroline Williams settled in Melbourne in 1981 after living in London and Sydney. The subject of her 1988 Archibald portrait is influential art dealer and patron Georges Mora (1913–1992), whom she married in 1985.

Mora fled Nazi Germany for Paris in the early 1930s and became involved with the French Resistance. He emigrated to Australia with his first wife Mirka (the couple separated in 1970 and later divorced), arriving in Melbourne in 1951. Mora established himself as an art dealer and restaurateur and became a leading figure on the national art scene, founding Tolarno Galleries in 1967. The year of this portrait, Mora helped organise the Australian Contemporary Art Fair and was appointed chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

The painting, which references James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s famous 1871 portrait of his mother, Arrangement in grey and black no 1, is now in the Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria, with the title Mr Georges Mora.