Guide to the Papers of Nora Heysen, 1913-2003

Summary

Collection number:

MS 10041

Creator:

Heysen, Nora and Dubery, Craig, Mr.

Extent:

6.3 metres and (32 ms boxes + 2 medium folio boxes + 1 large folio box + 8 sound/av carriers)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Nora Heysen, National Library of Australia, MS 10041, [series and file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Part available for research; part not available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The papers relate to the life and work of Australian artist Nora Heysen. The papers include letters; photographs; catalogues; newspaper clippings; personal papers (including an extract of her birth certificate); art publications; and sound and video material. The bulk of the collection is a large series of personal correspondence retained by Nora.

Biographical Note:

Nora Heysen (Norrie; Noshie) was born 11 January 1911, fourth daughter of Hans and Sallie (also Selma, née Bartels) Heysen of Hahndorf, South Australia.

At age 14, Nora undertook art training at the School of Fine Arts, North Adelaide.

On returning to Adelaide from Europe, Nora painted at 'The Cedars', the Heysen family home and studio until 1938 when she settled in Sydney.

Nora achieved early professional success, having her first solo exhibition in 1933 (aged 21) at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide, and being the first woman to win the Archibald Prize (1938). Other solo exhibitions included those in South Australia at the Heysen Gallery Hahndorf (1952); John Martin's Art Gallery (1957); Millicent Masonic Hall (1963); and North Adelaide Gallery (1967). Moreton Galleries, Brisbane also exhibited her work in 1954. In the 1980s Old Dridan's Gallery Clarendon (South Australia) and Von Bertouch Galleries (Newcastle, NSW) staged solo exhibitions, but it took over fifty years of working and living in Sydney from 1938 onwards for a solo exhibition of her work to be arranged in Sydney in 1989 by Lou Klepac at the S. H. Ervin Gallery.

Louis McCubbin nominated Nora Heysen to be selected as a war artist, and after some delays, Nora took up war work in Melbourne in October 1943. Nora became the first woman artist appointed by the Military History Section and the only woman artist to serve in a war zone. As VX94085 Captain Nora Heysen, she travelled to Papua New Guinea and was for a time stationed in North Queensland. Apart from her studio portraits of the heads of the three women's services, from 1943 to 1946, Nora captured the war work of women and the work of the Australian medical and research teams engaged in researching anti-malaria treatments. In all, the Australian War Memorial holds 160 works by Nora Heysen. In New Guinea, she met her future husband, Robert Hughes Black (1917-1988).

In 1947 Nora travelled again to London. Dr Robert Black was also in London extending his research into malaria and other tropical diseases. Black later became the Head of Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney and an internationally recognised authority on tropical diseases. Black travelled extensively internationally and wrote loving letters to Nora detailing his meetings and research.

Nora and Robert married in January 1953 and together they purchased 'The Chalet' at Hunter's Hill. During Nora's lifetime, many visitors came to view and admire the house that was made of prefabricated Baltic pine and that had been exhibited at the Paris Exhibition. The house had been imported to Sydney and erected at Hunter's Hill c.1850. Nora remained in this residence until her death. Nora and Robert divorced in 1976 and there were no children from this marriage.

During the 1950s and 1960s Nora accompanied Robert to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and these locations and peoples are reflected in her works of that time. A number of photographic images in the collection also relate to this time and the work of Dr Robert Black.

As an artist, Nora has been classified as an 'Academic realist'. Nora was an exhibiting member of a number of artist's societies (notably the Society of Artists and the short-lived and controversial Academy of Australian Art) and exhibited a steady output of portraits and still lifes in group exhibitions. Self-portraits, portraits, her garden, its flowers and produce, as well as her pets were among the subjects of her paintings and drawings.

Throughout her life, Nora maintained regular correspondence with her extended family and with friends. Containing letters from relatives and friends, the collection shows that Nora was a frequent letter-writer. In particular, the letters from Steven Coorey reveal the development over many years of their close personal friendship. Steven later lived with Nora at 'The Chalet' as did Craig Dubery. Steven and Craig cared for Nora in her final years.

In 1984, when Nora was aged 73, her first retrospective exhibition was held at the Old Clarendon Gallery, South Australia. A number of surveys and retrospectives followed including the S. H. Ervin Gallery (Sydney) and Carrick Hill (Adelaide) exhibitions in 1989. The National Library of Australia held a major exhibition of her life and work in Canberra in 2001.

In 1993 Nora received the Australia Council's award for Achievement in the Arts and was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in 1998.

Nora died in Sydney in 2003.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

• Nora Heysen [electronic resource] Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2000. http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/36338/20030703-0000/www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/noraheysen/pages/bio.html (accessed 4 September 2007).
• Klepac, Lou. Nora Heysen. Sydney: Beagle Press, 1989.
• Klepac, Lou. Nora Heysen. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2000.
• Klepac, Lou. 'The Heysen legacy: the work of Nora Heysen', NLA news, vol XI, no 2, November 2000.
• Thiele, Colin. Heysen of Hahndorf. Adelaide: Rigby, 1976.
• Nockels, Kate. 'Hidden from view: Nora Heysen twentieth century Australian artist'. Canberra, Australian National University, 1997 (MA thesis).
• Wilkins, Lola. 'Nora Heysen' in Dictionary of Australian artists online, accessed through http://www.daao.org.au, November 2007.
• Mattingley, Christobel. 'Nora, daughter of Hans Heysen, artist in her own right', NLA news, vol XVII no 6, March 2007, pp 7-10.

Immediate Source of Acquisition:

Nora Heysen bequeathed the collection to the Library as part of the Heysen Trust in a single instalment in 2004, with the assistance of Lou Klepac, Nora Heysen's executor.

Arrangement:

The collection was received by the Library in 2004. As the collection was in no order upon receipt, it has been organised by the Library into five series: Correspondence; Personal papers; Photographic prints and negatives; Catalogues of exhibitions; and Newspaper clippings. Only the series of correspondence has been further arranged into seven subseries to bring together large amounts of unordered material from named correspondents, in particular Nora Heysen's parents; her husband Dr Robert Black; and several relatives and friends. Letters in these subseries have not been further arranged, other than one subseries from miscellaneous correspondents which has been placed in a rough chronological order.

Container List:

Series	Subseries	Files	Box
1	1	1	1
1	2	2-7	1
1	2	8-14	2
1	2	15-21	3
1	2	22-27	4
1	3	28-34	5
1	3	35-38	6
1	4	39-41	6
1	4	42-48	7
1	4	49-55	8
1	4	56-62	9
1	4	63-68	10
1	4	69-74	11
1	5	75-81	12
1	6	82	12
1	6	83-87	13
1	6	88-94	14
1	6	95-102	15
1	6	103-111	16
1	6	112-119	17
1	6	120	18
1	7	121-124	18
1	7	125-129	19
2	~	1-6	20
2	~	7	21
3	~	1-6	21
3	~	7-11	22
3	~	12-20	23
3	~	21-32	24
3	~	33-39	Folio Box 25
3	~	40-43	26
3	~	44-48	27
4	~	1	27
4	~	2-7	28
4	~	8-12	29
4	~	13-17	30
4	~	18-21	31
4	~	22-25	32
4	~	26-29	33
5	~	1-3	Folio Box 34
5	~	4-6	Folio Box 35

Related

Separated Material:

Three items in this collection were previously held at MS 5073, Series 2, Folders 143, 144 and 145, having come to the Library in 1975 as part of the papers of Hans Heysen. In 1987 the Library acceded to Nora Heysen's request that the Library return the originals of her father's letters to her. These three items were included in the papers of Nora Heysen that came to the Library in 2004 and have been retained in the Nora Heysen Papers as MS 10041 Series 1.3, Folders 36, 37 and 38. Copies of these letters have been retained in MS 5073 Series 2, Folders 143, 144 and 145.

Existence and Location of Copies:

Three letters from Series 1, Subseries 1.3, folders 36 and 37 have been digitised and are available through this finding aid.

A number of artworks by Nora Heysen have been digitised and are available online via the Library's catalogue (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au).

Indexed terms

Names:

Dubery, Craig, Mr.

Conditions Governing Access:

Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn3354814).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Nora Heysen, National Library of Australia, MS 10041, [series and file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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