Sir John Longstaff
“Portrait of E.P. Simpson”

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Medium
Oil on Canvas Board

Dimensions
18 x 87.5cm

Year
1922

Description
Sir John Campbell Longstaff (1861 – 1941) was an Australian painter, war artist and a fivetime winner of the Archibald Prize. He was a cousin of Will Longstaff, also a painter. He won the National Gallery of Victoria’s first travelling scholarship. He later moved to London, where he painted many portraits. He returned to Australia in 1894 and was given several commissions. He travelled to London again in 1901, where he exhibited with the Royal Academy.

Longstaff was appointed an official war artist with the Australian Infantry Force in the First World War. In 1928, Longstaff was knighted, the first Australian Artist to have had this honour. His 1929 portrait of the artist Ellis Rowan was the first national portrait of an Australian woman.