Justin O'Brien

Justin O'Brien (1917-1996) was an Australian painter and teacher known for religious subjects and portraiture, whose artistic outlook was shaped by his experience as a prisoner of war during the Second World War. He won the inaugural Blake Prize in 1951 for The Virgin Enthroned, and went on to create religious commissions for churches in Australia and Europe, despite describing himself as an agnostic painter of religious subjects rather than a believer. He eventually settled in Rome to paint full time, and his contribution to Australian art was recognized with his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 1992. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/