A portrait of the late Carlton triple Premiership player and coach Robert Walls, which was entered into the prestigious Archibald Portrait Prize back in 2007, has found a new home at the Carlton Football Club through the generosity of a recent buyer and with the good wishes of the Walls family.

The acrylic on linen portrait showcases a relaxed and somewhat reflective Walls seated with his legs crossed on a wooden chair, and carries the name of renowned Melbourne-based artist and sculptor Rachel Boymal. The painting, which measures 122cm x 91cm, features the code “A592X” on the rear.

This story begins in Ballarat a fortnight before Walls’ passing in early May 2025 when Ian Howard and his wife Angie discovered the portrait by chance in a visit to the St Vincent de Paul Society store for pre-loved items in Ballarat.

“The place was pretty big and the painting was on a wall on proud display. We recognized who it was as soon as we saw it,” Ian said.

“The painting didn’t cost a hell of a lot, and the initial thought was to buy it, because I always liked Robert as a special comments footballer presenter - and Angie, a Richmond supporter, remembered him from his time at Punt Road as Coach,” Ian said.

“The lady in the store from whom we bought the painting knew nothing about how it came to be there. There was a piece of paper with it, which we’ve unfortunately lost.

“We then had this romantic thought that Robert might want the painting, and our plan was to eventually get it to him, not knowing that he was so desperately ill. We had tried to contact his PR people because he’d been on the speaking circuit, but they never got back to us.

“After we heard Robert had died we didn’t know what to do with the painting, and we shuffled it from room to room. We then thought Carlton might be the next best home, and here we are.”

At the time of the handover, Ian and Angie welcomed the club’s suggestion that the Walls family should first be offered the portrait. Walls’s son David was then notified and on viewing the painting noted that “the artist has captured Dad really well”.

At the same time, David indicated his want for the painting to remain in the club’s keep as the family was already in possession of another Walls portrait painted by Ron Roach.

Boymal, a lifelong Carlton devotee through marriage as her husband David’s grandfather lived a short walk from the ground in Pigdon Street, was quite taken when told of the painting’s recent discovery.
She recalled first being introduced to Walls and fellow Carlton Premiership Coach David Parkin (whose portrait she also painted) through a friend.

“I told my friend that I was interested in painting football people and he made contact with both Robert and David through an organization called Kids Undercover – a support group for youth homelessness in which they were all involved.

“I remember going to Robert’s place in Park Orchards about a month after his first wife died,” she said. It was one sitting, around 90 minutes, during which time I did drawings and took photos.”

The Walls portrait later featured in the Salon des Refusés exhibition in Melbourne. That exhibition showcased a number of rejected submissions to the Archibald Prize – “and I have a nice photograph of Robert and me standing in front of the portrait at the exhibition”.

Boymal later offered the portrait to its subject, but by then Robert was living in a small apartment “and he didn’t have room to display the portrait”.

“I kept the work for a number of years until I relocated from house to apartment. In February last year, it and about eight other portraits I’d submitted for the Archibalds, including one of Deborah Conway, went to auction,” Boymal recalled.

“When the painting of Robert wasn’t sold the auctioneer asked what should be done with it. I said ‘I think it should be given to a charity’ and the auctioneer agreed.”

Which probably explains how the artwork ended up at the Vinnies shop in Ballarat – and ultimately with its first buyer Ian Howard.

That the portrait rediscovered by the Howards has now found a home at the old Carlton ground where Robert once played pleases Rachel Boymal no end.

To quote the artist: “I’m elated, I really am”.

Rachel Boymal’s portrait of Robert Walls will more than likely share wallspace in the Carlton Football Club archive with another Archibald Prize entrant gifted to the club – a Benjamin Crampton portrait in oil of the dual Premiership ruckman Justin Madden reclining on a red Featherstone chair.