Joshua Smith was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n artist who won the Archibald Prize

Archibald Prize

The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...

 in 1944 with his portrait of Hon Sol Rosevear, MHR, Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives

Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer in the upper house is the President of the Senate....

, but is more well known as being the subject of the previous years controversial Archibald Prize win, by artist William Dobell

William Dobell

Sir William Dobell, OBE was an Australian artist .The electoral Division of Dobell is named after him.- Life :...

.

Although the portrait of him was very popular, with more than 154,000 visitors, a courtcase relating to the portrait in 1943 caused damage to his career, as well as that of Dobell's. At an interview in 1991 he called the portrait a "curse, a phantom that haunts me.It has torn at me every day of my life.I've tried to bury it inside me in the hope it would die, but it never does". The portrait of him by Dobell, had become more famous than his own work, which caused him considerable consternation.

[The Best Australian Profiles, ed. Matthew Ricketson]