Jude Rae trained in art and art history in Sydney, where she participated in her first group exhibition in 1985. During the 1990s she lived and worked in New Zealand, teaching in various art institutions, exhibiting in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and studying at the University of Canterbury. She returned to Australia in 1990, to teach painting in Sydney for three years. For about a decade she lived in Canberra, where she painted a number of portraits in the studio attached to her home. The portrait of the eminent medical researcher Frank Fenner (1914–2010) – commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in 2007 – was among them. Rae found Professor Fenner to be an undemanding sitter, whose only request was to be portrayed wearing a white shirt.
Jude Rae won the Portia Geach Memorial Award – a portrait prize for women artists – in 2005 and 2008. The Gallery acquired her painting of fortepianist and conductor Geoffrey Lancaster in 2013; and in 2017 commissioned her to paint a portrait of Canberra businessman Terry Snow.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Mr Anthony Adair and Ms Karen MacLeod 2007
© Commonwealth of Australia
Jude Rae (age 51 in 2007)
Professor Frank Fenner AC CMG MBE FAA FRS (age 93 in 2007)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
An interview with Professor Frank Fenner who describes his life and the creation of his portrait.
Bringing eminent scientist Frank Fenner and artist Jude Rae together for the National Portrait Gallery commission was like matchmaking.
