The official portrait of Governor-General David Hurley was unveiled at Australian Parliament House on Monday.

The Historic Memorials Committee had commissioned artist Jude Rae to create the portrait for Parliament’s Historic Memorials Collection, which was established in 1911.

Its purpose was to capture portraits of Heads of State, Governors-General, Prime Ministers, Presidents of the Senate, Speakers of the House of Representatives, Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia, and significant milestones in Parliamentary history.

“Throughout my term as governor-general, Linda and I have had the privilege of witnessing the strength of the Australian people, their compassion for each other and their gritty determination”, said the Governor-General.

 “This has often been against the backdrop of bushfires, floods, the pandemic and other challenging events. Those characteristics are inspiring and the cause for my optimism for our future – something I wanted reflected in my official portrait.”

It is Rae’s third commission for the Historic Memorials Collection at Parliament House. Her portraits of Anna Burke and the Linda Burney MP are on public display.

Although no longer resident in Canberra, Rae is very well known here as a former ANU School of Art painting lecturer and visiting artist, and a tenant and board member at Australian National Capital Artists in Dickson.

“When we met to discuss the painting, His Excellency suggested that bushfire regrowth might offer an appropriate symbol of hope and an acknowledgement of the strength and resilience of the Australian people during his time in office,” Rae said.

“I found these observations very helpful in reaching the balance of form and content that informs this portrait.”

One of her portraits was a key artwork in the National Portrait Gallery‘s Idle Hours show in 2009-2010. Canberra Museum and Gallery exhibited her work during 2010 in Jude Rae: Still Lifes. The ANU Drill Hall Gallery featured her in Jude Rae: A Space of Measured Light, 2017 and in 2021 the National Gallery included Rae in Know My Name, its major survey of Australian women artists.