Nora was the daughter of a famous painter.
Her father painted landscapes, pictures of the land and nature.
Nora wanted to find her own way of painting.
She painted indoor flowers and people, paintings known as portraits.
Nora was the first woman to win the Archibald Prize.
The Archibald Prize is awarded for portrait painting.
Nora was also the first woman to become a war artist,
painting women in World War II.
As a child Nora had shown a lot of artistic skill.
At the age of 14 Nora went to the North Adelaide School of Fine Arts.
At 22, her paintings were in 3 state art galleries,
this painting, called Ruth, was one of the three.
Before she made this painting, Nora made drawings of Ruth.
These drawings show that Ruth was wearing farm-worker’s clothes.
You do not see the farm clothes in the painted portrait.
Instead, you see a young woman wearing blouse with a simple neckline,
and her arms folded,
and with the clear blue sky behind her.
This type of portrait is like what the great artists painted in Europe 500 years ago.
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