Noel Fraser Hickey (1921–2010) grew up in Sydney and found work as a photographer with Kodak after finishing his schooling at Fort Street Boys High. After serving with the AIF in the Second World War, he started his own studio in Sydney, specialising in headshots and portfolio photography for aspiring fashion models. Artist Nancy Menetrey (1924-2024) worked for Hickey as a negative re-toucher, and painted this portrait of her sharply-dressed boss as her entry for the 1957 Archibald Prize. Hickey is depicted holding a photograph of Patricia Woodley, a former Miss New South Wales and Miss Australia who founded her own modelling agency and deportment school in Sydney in the early 1950s. Menetrey's painting of Hickey was one of the 69 works selected for the 1957 Archibald Prize exhibition. She painted Woodley for the Archibald in 1958, but the portrait wasn’t among the finalists. Among her other portrait subjects were Rita Young, who modelled for artists such as Norman Lindsay and Max Dupain before the war; and Admiral Sir Victor Smith, a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy. Menetrey's portraits featured in the Portia Geach Memorial Award several times in the 1970s.
Gift of the artist 2021
© Nancy Menetrey
Nancy Menetrey (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Open every day
Drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection, this salon-style hang references the lavish 18th- and 19th-century European salons where paintings were hung floor-to-ceiling.
It takes a village to raise a creative! Get an insight into the often-unseen work and supporters needed for the arts to thrive. The work of art documents the creative process, evoke states of creativity and inspiration, and shows us clues about the subject’s own work from the way artists portray them.
