Stella Bowen

Stella Bowen was an Australian artist and writer who studied under Margaret Preston in Adelaide and Julian Ashton and Tom Roberts in Sydney. She moved to England in 1914 and became part of a bohemian circle of artists, writers, poets and political activists. She met and fell in love with the writer Ford Madox Ford in 1918 and had a daughter with him in 1920. They lived together in rural England and later in Paris, where Bowen was influenced by Charles Conder and Lucien Pissarro. She separated from Ford in 1927 and struggled to make a living as an artist. She painted portraits of notable figures such as Sinclair Lewis, Ramon Guthrie and H.G. Wells. In 1944, she was appointed as an official war artist by the Australian War Memorial and commissioned to paint portraits of RAAF members. She depicted the bomber crews of No. 460 Squadron, No. 462 Squadron and No. 461 Squadron with realism and sensitivity. She died of cancer in 1947 at the age of 54. She left behind a legacy of impressionist paintings on silk fans, landscapes, still lifes and portraits. She also wrote an autobiography, Drawn from Life: A Memoir, which was published posthumously in 1949. She is regarded as one of Australia's most well-known official war artists and one of the first Australian women to achieve international recognition as an artist.