Kevin Connor The Hon Sir Frank Kitto, KBE

This Archibald Prize-winning portrait by Kevin Connor of judge Frank Kitto (1903–1994) is now in the collection of the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Kitto was chancellor of the university from 1970 to 1981.

A former Justice of the High Court, Kitto was Connor’s father-in-law. This was the the third time the artist exhibited a portrait of him in the Archibald; other portraits appeared in the 1961 and 1964 competitions.

Kitto successfully represented the Gallery in the court case that followed the controversial awarding of the 1943 Archibald to William Dobell for his portrait of artist Joshua Smith. In 1975, he was again in the centre of Archibald debate. Connor’s portrayal of him was awarded the prize when John Bloomfield’s portrait of filmmaker Tim Burstall was disqualified, after the Bloomfield acknowledged it was painted solely from a photograph rather than ‘from life’ as the entry conditions stipulated.