Paul Fitzgerald AM, a Melbourne-based artist, made his career as a professional portraitist. He painted HM Queen Elizabeth II twice, and portrayed a great number of Australian politicians, churchmen, jurists, military personnel and medical practitioners. In 2000, Fitzgerald made headlines when it was discovered that outgoing Premier Jeff Kennett, vacating his Treasury Place office, had taken Fitzgerald’s portrait of Sir Henry Bolte home with him. The painting, belonging to the National Gallery of Victoria, was subsequently returned. Fitzgerald was the Founding President of the Australian Guild of Realist Artists. In a 2004 article in the journal of religious opinion, AD 2000, he wrote ‘I believe it is the task of a Christian artist to uphold the epiphany of beauty and goodness and adhere to the truth of God’s creation.'
