George Gittoes after Grünewald
Matthew Cheyne
- Sitter: George Gittoes
- Medium: Oil on Linen
- Dimensions: 100cm x 200cm
- Representation: Mitchell Fine Art
- Categories: Performing arts and music industry
2026 Packer's Prize
Proudly supported by
Howard Smith Wharves
About the artwork
George Gittoes AM is Australia’s longest serving war artist, whose work spanned painting, filmmaking and humanitarian work for over forty years. Artist Matthew Cheyne first met Gittoes in Berlin in 2009, after Gittoes had returned from Afghanistan and was painting a suite of works grappling with what he had witnessed. In a period of personal and professional upheaval, Cheyne watched Gittoes fill canvases and sketchbooks with the horrors he had seen.
When Cheyne mentioned he was visiting Colmar, Gittoes insisted he seek out the Isenheim Altarpiece, a medieval work depicting St Anthony tormented by demons. Standing in front of it, Cheyne saw Gittoes immediately. This portrait has been in his mind ever since.
Shaped as an altarpiece and rich with symbolism, the work acknowledges the atrocities Gittoes has witnessed across Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan. Above him, a wild stingray hovers, a representation of nature, the one place of sanctuary and pure peace for Gittoes in an otherwise relentless life.
About the artist
Matthew Cheyne is an Ipswich based artist working in oil painting, drawing and sculpture. His work has been exhibited internationally across Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, and is held in collections across Australia, Malaysia, France, Germany, China and the United States. He has exhibited at Casula Powerhouse, Sydney and the Australian National Archives, Canberra.
Judges Notes
Chosen by the State Library of Queensland’s hanging, conservation, engagement and curatorial teams, alongside the Brisbane Portrait Prize team from Bright Humans, this year’s winner was a firm favourite. Shaped as an altarpiece and rich with symbolism, the work acknowledges the atrocities experienced by the sitter during his years as a war artist.
