Catherine Helen Spence

Miniature portrait in oils of Catherine Helen Spence. Seated at a desk, she is wearing a formal dress with cap, a watch chain and a horseshoe brooch at her throat. She was a journalist, novelist, social and political reformer and a champion for women's rights including the vote. At her death in 1910 she was mourned as 'the grand old woman of Australia'.
Painted from a photograph.