Media Release — Eminent women barristers’ portraits to be unveiled on IWD

The works will join more than 90 portraits within the Peter O'Callaghan QC Gallery, which displays a collection representing much of the history of the Victorian Bar and the contributions many of its leading barristers and jurists have made.

“We are very proud of the portraits in the Peter O’Callaghan QC Gallery,” said Sam Hay KC, President of the Victorian Bar.

“They represent not only a significant collection of works by leading Australian portrait artists and painters, but also form a collection that herald some the major contributors to the overall fabric of the Victorian Bar.

“The portraits unveiled today are no exception, detailing two pivotal figures in our history, in Her Honour Justice Susan Kenny AM and Her Honour Justice Kate McMillan.

“It’s fitting that these two significant jurists are being honoured in such a way on International Women’s Day.”

Those scheduled to be present at the unveilings include the Honourable Justice John Dixon, the Honourable Justice Lisa Nichols, Judicial Registrar Leonie Englefield, Professor Pip Nicholson – Deputy-Vice Chancellor of Melbourne University, and Róisín Annesley KC – Vice President of the Australian Bar Association and former Victorian Bar President.

The portraits are to be officially unveiled by Peter Jopling AM KC, Chair of the Melbourne Art Foundation board.

Marie Mansfield, who painted the portrait of Justice Kenny, is the winner of the 2021 Portia Geach Memorial Award, the 2021 Wollemi Project AIR, the 2020 Bundanon Trust, Artist in Residence, and the 2017 Tony Fini Foundation Artists Prize, Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, from the Art Gallery of Western Australia. 

Jenny Watson, who painted Justice McMillan, had her first exhibition at Chapman Powell Street Gallery Melbourne in 1973. Having lived in London, Paris and New York, her work is on display in galleries throughout in Australia, as well as in the Yokohama and Nagoya City Art Museums in Japan, Germany’s Ulmer Museum, and the Vienna Academy of Arts and Craft.

The new portraits are:

• the Honourable Justice Susan Kenny AM of the Federal Court of Australia, and
• the Honourable Justice Kate McMillan of the Supreme Court of Victoria

THE PETER O’CALLAGHAN QC GALLERY

The Peter O’Callaghan QC Gallery pays tribute to the enormous contributions of the Bar’s champions and acts as a source of inspiration for future generations of barristers.

The portrait collection includes commissioned and donated works by Rick Amor, Bill Henson, Judy Cassab, Ivor Hele, Paul Fitzgerald, Clifton Pugh, Archibald Colquhoun, Robert Hannaford, Andrew Sibley, Lewis Miller, Martin Tighe and Peter Churcher to name but a few.