NOEL RUBIE (1901 - 1976)

Noel Rubie was an Australian Modernist & esteemed portrait photographer. He worked as a commercial painter and photographer in Sydney in the 1930s-1950s, exhibiting with the Royal Art Society & Australian Art Society, and was also an Archibald Prize finalist. He was heavily involved with the National Theatre as a leading photographer, actor, writer and set designer, and his works are represented at the National Portrait Gallery, National Library, and State Library of Victoria. This painting is believed to have been exhibited at Grosvenor Galleries in 1936 in Rubie's first significant exhibition, covered by the Sydney Morning Herald and Art In Australia. This stellar example of early modernism in Australia in the manner of Grace Cossington Smith, Roy De Maistre & Roland Wakelin.