The original title of this painting was Halfcaste Woman and catalogue notes describe it ' ... as a symbol of the colored people of the North ... in her face lies sublime acceptance and within her reposes the future of the North'. In later years Elizabeth Durack revealed the work could be read as a self-portrait. It was in Broome, immediately post-war that Elizabeth broke irrevocably from the comfortable position of collaborator and illustrator of her sister, Mary Durack's writings and set forth on a life as an independent artist. At the time, pregnant with ideas, aspirations and possibilities were — or seemed — limitless. ... Take Broome Madonna ... this woman seemed to epitomize [the times] ... I made pencil drawings and painted from them ... she sat very still, was not interested in what I was doing and did not even want to see the finished work. She was indifferent, impassive, serene. Life was going on and ... (http://www.elizabethdurack.com/artworks_series.php?series_id=37)