Self portrait

'I painted that self-portrait in my father's studio - on the walls were several Vermeer prints. I greatly admired Vermeer's works and wanted to paint like him - perhaps Vermeer and my father were my biggest influences in those days ...'

- Nora Heysen, 1970s

Nora Heysen's assured 'Self portrait' was one of an exceptional number of such portraits made at a time when the young painter felt confident of achieving independence from her famous artist-father Hans Heysen, as an artist in her own right. In common with her other paintings of the 1930s, its powerful composition of strongly defined forms, precise hard paint quality and earthy colours recalls European masters of the early Renaissance.

Following study in Europe, Heysen established herself during this time as a distinguished portrait painter, winning the first Archibald Prize awarded to a woman in 1938 and with other artists working in an academic realist tradition, attaining great public popularity and critical success.