Stuart Campbell Esq.c 1933

This portrait of Australian aviator Stuart Campbell was painted by Russian artist Nina Orloff in London in 1933. As chief pilot for two Antarctic expeditions (1929–31) led by Sir Douglas Mawson, Campbell became one of the first men to fly in the southern polar region. In 1947 he led the inaugural Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, establishing stations on Heard and Macquarie Islands.

Campbell was friends with Orloff and her husband and bought the portrait when they were in financial difficulty — noting in his diary, ‘I set off to Putney to the Shilling Theatre to try and buy a picture of Nina’s as they need cash badly now’. Campbell’s diaries are also held by the Library.