B. 1873-1959

Born in Melbourne in 1873, Portia Geach was a trailblazing artist and feminist whose life and work bridged the worlds of creative expression and social reform. Trained at the National Gallery School in Melbourne and later at London’s Royal Academy - the first Australian woman to do so - Geach exhibited her paintings in London, Paris, New York, and across Australia. While portraiture was her specialty, she also created murals and stained glass, embracing a wide range of artistic disciplines with ambition and skill.

Alongside her creative pursuits, Geach emerged as a powerful advocate for women’s rights. After encountering the Housewives’ League in New York, she founded the New South Wales Housewives’ Association in 1917, later reorganising it into the more politically active Housewives' Progressive Association. A tireless campaigner for equal pay, improved food standards, and women’s political representation, she became a vocal and often controversial figure in public life — delivering fiery speeches, writing newspaper columns, and even leading a potato boycott in protest of inflated prices.

Despite exhibiting widely, Geach often clashed with the male-dominated art establishment and eventually turned her energies more fully toward activism. Few of her paintings survive today, yet her legacy endures through the Portia Geach Memorial Award, established posthumously to support women portrait artists. A forerunner of the Australian women’s movement, Portia Geach remains a potent symbol of feminist determination, artistic innovation, and political engagement in early 20th-century Australia.