TODAY IN HISTORY: The painting that ruined a friendship, triggered a lawsuit and proved a massive hit
Perhaps the most controversial painting to ever win the Archibald Prize was named the winner on January 21, 1943.
William Dobell's painting by of fellow painter Joshua Smith was decried as more of a caricature than a portrait.
Two other entrants sued because they deemed the winner to be unworthy of the criteria of the competition.
And Smith (pictured), whose own painting was named the runner-up that year, was deeply hurt by the depiction.
"It has torn at me every day of my life," Smith said in 1990.
The painting made the Archibald Prize exhibition that year extraordinarily popular, but Smith and Dobell fell out over the depiction.
When the portrait was damaged in a fire years later, Dobell declined to restore it.
Smith himself would win the Archibald Prize the following year with a far more conventional portrait of politician Sol Rosevear.
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