''Mr Joshua Smith'', also known as ''Portrait of an Artist (Joshua Smith)'', is a 1943 painting by Australian artist

William Dobell Sir William Dobell (24 September 189913 May 1970) was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named ...

. The painting is a portrait of Joshua Smith, an artist and friend of Dobell. The painting was awarded the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

in 1943. The painting took a modernist approach to portraiture; a break with the realism favoured to that date by Archibald Prize entrants. The modernist painting attracted vehement criticism and equally passionate praise. The controversy spilled over from the arts world to the general public, with the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

having to extend opening hours and later prolong the exhibition. Over 140,000 people viewed the portrait during the exhibition 90% of Sydney's population at the time. This award was contested in the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...

Mary Edwell-Burke Mary Edwell-Burke (1894–1988), was an Australian painter and carver. Biography Edwell-Burke was born on 19 June 1894 in Sydney. She was the half-sister of Bernice E. Edwell. She studied at the East Sydney Technical College. In the 1920s ...

and Joseph Wolinski on the grounds that the painting was not a portrait but rather a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

. The case was lost and the award stood. The case was said to have "placed art on trial" and to have raised "questions of what constituted a portrait and what was the relationship of realism to art in general." Smith himself was hurt by the depiction and by the controversy associated with the portrait. In 1990 Smith called the portrait "a curse, a phantom that haunts me. It has torn at me every day of my life." Dobell sold the painting to Sir

Edward Hayward Sir Edward Waterfield Hayward (10 November 1903 – 13 August 1983) was an Australian businessman, best known for owning and managing John Martin's, a chain of department stores in Adelaide, South Australia, and for instigating the Adelaide Chri ...

, a businessman from South Australia. In 1952, the painting was damaged in a fire at the Hayward's home. Dobell himself declined to restore the work. In 1972, Kenneth Malcolm, conservator at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

in London, undertook a restoration. Malcolm worked from a black and white photograph of the original and the extent of the damage required significant repainting. This restoration created further controversy as some questioned if the portrait could still be considered a work by Dobell.

Brett Whiteley Brett Whiteley Order of Australia, AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald Prize, Archibald, Wynne Prize, ...

's 1978 Archibald Prize winning work '' Art, Life and the other thing'' includes a self-portrait of Whiteley holding a copy of Dobell's painting.

References

1943 paintings Paintings by William Dobell Portraits by Australian artists 20th-century portraits Archibald Prize {{20C-painting-stub