This portrait, entitled Lady Keith Smith, was painted on canvas by Australian artist Marion Jones in 1924.
Anita Crawford (nee Schmidt) had married Sir Keith earlier that year. She’d previously been married to England cricketer Jack Crawford. In Flick of the Fingers,
Crawford’s biographer Michael Burns describes the “talented and glamorous” Anita as a prominent figure in Roaring Twenties London. “She had her portrait painted by the distinguished Australian artist Marion Jones, she designed a collection of flapper-girl clothes for Adelaide’s fashionable ladies, and she was appointed the conductor of a Shakespearean orchestra …”
When Lady Anita died in 1986, she bequeathed her estate to the development of the Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith Fund, which remains dedicated to encouraging the advancement of aeronautics and aerospace technology in South Australia.
This image was supplied courtesy of the painting’s owner, John Russell OAM.
Back to all objects