Sonia McMahon (1932–2010) was the wife of William McMahon, Australian Prime Minister from 1971 to 1972. Born into a wealthy Sydney family, she trained as an occupational therapist. At 23 she met 57-year-old McMahon, a lawyer who had been elected Liberal member for Lowe in 1949 and had become a cabinet minister in 1951. They married eight months after meeting and had three children; Sonia McMahon was the third, and most recent, prime minister’s wife to give birth during her husband’s term in office. In 1971 she made headlines by wearing a daringly cut dress to dinner at the White House; the dress is now in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum. Over several decades she was a board member or patron of many charitable bodies. Renowned for her good cheer and resilience, she was frequently photographed at the races and charity and celebrity events, sometimes escorted by her actor son, Julian. When she died, widely mourned, newspapers ran tributes to the effect of the 'end of an era of elegance'.
In Esther Erlich's painting, McMahon poses in a small armchair dressed in immaculate white. Her tilted head and quizzical gaze suggest strength of character and a degree of tenacity. The painting was Erlich's entry for the 1999 Portia Geach Memorial Award – and at least one critic thought it should have won.
Gift of an anonymous donor 2014
© Esther Erlich
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Esther Erlich’s portrait of Lady McMahon.
Well behaved women seldom make history, as the saying goes, and the National Portrait Gallery, consequently, is full of awesome Australian women who refused to conform to narrow ideas about their place and their worth.
