B. 1935 

Janet Dawson is a remarkable Australian artist who defies simple categorisation. Born in Sydney, Dawson was raised on a farm in western New South Wales before moving to Melbourne at the age of 6 in 1941. Dawson has been producing work since she was 11 years old, formally trained by artist H Septimus Power and then at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, the precursor to the Victorian College of the Arts.

With a career spanning almost 80 years, Dawson seamlessly transitioned from abstraction to figuration. Works produced during the 1960s saw her become a renowned abstract artist, featured within the National Gallery of Victoria’s landmark exhibition The Field. She went on to win the Archibald Prize in 1973, only the third woman in history to achieve this. Her extensive practice has been recently celebrated by the Art Gallery of New South Wales with the 2025 retrospective “Far Away, So Close.”  

Although highly regarded within artistic circles, Dawson has been relatively underrepresented by art historical accounts. Her career is as varied as it is prolific, again shifting focus towards realism during the 1990s. This evolution follows her transition from city to country life, having relocated to a rural farm property in NSW from 1974-2014. This return to country life is pinpointed by a marked increase in depictions of everyday life, demonstrating Dawson’s sensitivity towards seasonal variations.

Dawson’s work is featured in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her prolific career spans a variety of styles and subjects, making Dawson an enviable inclusion for any serious collector of Australian art.   

To read a more in-depth biography of this artist, click here.