Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Lyn Watson 1960
oil on composition board
not signed
44.9 (h) x 34.9 (w) cm
Private collection
© estate of Fred Williams

Fred Williams painted numerous portraits of friends and family over the years. In 1960, at the age of thirty-three, he met Lyn Watson. She recalls that they met at Sherbrooke where he was having a Christmas break with friends. ‘They said they wanted a change from the landscape and asked if I would come and sit for a portrait. I did that in the afternoons and that was how I first met Fred. When I came back to the city he wanted to finish the portrait, so he said! So that was the beginning of it.’The portrait of Lyn with her red hair gently combed back and wearing a black shirt with a Chinese collar is simple and elegant. Lyn and Fred Williams married in 1961 and would remain together for the rest of his life.