Ticketed entry is in place to safely manage your visit so please book ahead. Need to cancel or rejig? Email bookings@npg.gov.au
Louis Kahan (1905-2002) was born in Vienna, Austria to Jewish parents. After training as a tailor in Vienna, at twenty Kahan moved to Paris, where he worked for the couturier Paul Poiret, first as a tailor and then a designer. In 1939, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion; as the war progressed he worked for the American Red Cross, making thousands of glamorous portraits of wounded servicemen in French and American hospitals in North Africa. After the war he returned to Paris and worked as an illustrator for Le Figaro, but in 1947 he came to Australia. He settled in Melbourne in 1950. Soon after he arrived the editor of Meanjin, Clem Christesen, asked him to make a series of pen and ink portraits of writers for the journal. Critic Robert Nelson wrote that these portraits 'stand tall in the great tradition of intellectual homage: direct, well observed, economical, even brusque'. Over the next fifty years his pen and ink portraits were hung in many Melbourne homes, while he continued to experiment with techniques and fields of activity. The Jewish Museum held a Kahan retrospective in 1997, comprising portraits, stained glass, drawings, paintings, prints, costume and set designs and ephemera. A selection of his war drawings was shown at the Australian Embassy in Washington in 2005. Kahan won the Archibald Prize in 1962 with a startling portrait of Patrick White.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Dr Gene Sherman AM and Brian Sherman AM 2012
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Louis Kahan/Copyright Agency, 2021
Recorded 1965
Accession number: 2012.220
Copyright image request form
Request a digital copy of an image for publication
Louis Kahan (age 44 in 1949)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Sarah Engledow on a foundational gallery figure who was quick on the draw.
Explore portraiture and come face to face with Australian identity, history, culture, creativity and diversity.
Timed ticketing, location, accessibility and amenities