Sir William Dobell was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named in his honour.
William Dobell, 1942, photograph by Max Dupain
Sir William Dobell visiting an art class at the Newcastle Technical College Art School in 1956
Plaque at the site of Dobell's interment at Newcastle Memorial Park in Beresfield
The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919. It is administered by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the trustees for sending in the pictures". The Archibald Prize has been awarded annually since 1921 and since July 2015 the prize has been AU$100,000.
Desbrowe Annear by W B McInnes, the first Archibald Prize winner (1921)
Lt-General The Hon Edmund Francis Herring, DSO, MC, ED by Sir William Dargie (1945)
