Brenda Niall AO (b. 1930) is one of Australia's foremost biographers. In 1974 she published Martin Boyd, a biography of the writer born into the Boyd family of artists; it was republished four times. Her subsequent writings on the family include The Boyds: A Family Biography (2002), which won the Queensland Premier's and Victorian Premier's Literary Awards; Martin Boyd: A life (2004), which won the National Book Council Award; and Brenda Niall on Arthur Boyd (2005). Her biography Georgiana: A Biography of Georgiana McCrae (1994) won the Victorian Premier's Award; and Mannix (2015) won the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the National Biography Award.
In her 2005 biography of renowned portrait artist Judy Cassab, Niall recalled her sittings for this 1997 portrait at the artist's Sydney home. 'I was put at ease by conversation and coffee, beguiled by the artist's interest in my life story … We had talked about what I should wear … We settled on deep blue but when the portrait was complete the blue was there only as underpainting, showing here and there through silvery and pale gold tones. "The blue didn't want to stay," she said … I see those choices now as rather like a biographer's tone and attitude.'
Gift of Dr Brenda Niall AO 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Judy Cassab/Copyright Agency, 2024
Dr Brenda Niall AO (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.
The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
