We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands.

Charles Bush Portrait (unfinished owing to mobilisation)

oil on hessian

85.2 x 59 cm image; 101.6 x 85.2 cm sheet

Image courtesy Australian War Memorial, Canberra

This is one of 17 self-portraits by Charles Bush in the Archibald Prize between 1940 and 1985. The Art Gallery of New South Wales collection has several other self-portrait studies on paper. This particular portrait was unfinished owing to Bush’s mobilisation as a corporal in the Second World War. It shows the artist in his military uniform soon after he enlisted. The work is now in the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.