Dr Joan Croll AO (1928–2022), radiologist and physician, studied medicine at the University of Sydney and commenced practising in 1975. A pioneer in the field of breast cancer treatment, she promoted the introduction of mammography and helped establish the National Breast Cancer Screening Program. Also a conservationist, Croll was one of a group of thirteen women – the Battlers for Kelly's Bush – whose campaign to protect bushland in Sydney's Hunters Hill in the early 1970s led to the world's first green ban.
Melbourne-born John Brack emerged as one of Australia's foremost figurative artists in the 1950s with paintings such as Collins Street, 5p.m. (1955). Brack didn't consider himself a portraitist, yet he created a number of portraits that, like his images of ordinary people and urban scenes, are finely observed, sometimes austere examinations of everyday life. On being told that Brack had been commissioned to paint her, Croll wondered: 'Oh, what am I going to look like?' Brack made a number of sketches of her in Sydney and completed the painting – the first of his few private portrait commissions – in Melbourne. 'When I look at my portrait, I see somebody who likes fashion', Croll later said. 'And I see me ... I'm a bossy lady, and I look like a bossy lady.'
Gift of Dr Joan Croll AO 2007. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Helen Brack
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