Professor Robert Connell

I painted this portrait of Raewyn Connell when she was still Robert, long before her gender affirmation surgery. Bob, as we called her back then, and her wife Pam were friends of the family. We joined them at the beach and on picnics where Bob organised cricket matches. In 1976 Connell was appointed Foundation Professor of Sociology at Macquarie University, the youngest Australian academic to hold a full professorial position in sociology at the time.

Pam commissioned this portrait in 1975. I drew Connell at work and attended lectures with my sketch book. This is one of my portraits where I break the traditional mould of portraiture. Instead of a single view of the sitter in a static pose, I create a composition with multiple viewpoints of the subject in various activities. Here the professor is reading, lecturing, and talking. The subdued tones of the lecture theatre are enlivened by the action of Connell throwing a cricket ball while wearing a brightly coloured T-shirt. Our family and Pam are among the students on the left side of the painting. Some of R.W. Connell’s publications at the time are included in the portrait.