Mervyn Horton

He then became an assistant to photographers Olga Sharpe and Max Dupain, studied cooking and in 1956 he opened an espresso bar and art gallery in Rowe Street, Sydney.

[5] Horton served as secretary of the Society of Artists, an executive member of the Arts Council of Australia (NSW Division), a board member of the National Trust of Australia (NSW), a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and an Australian commissioner for the XIIIth Bienal Internacional de São Paulo.

He met Lenwood Morris, a dancer with the Katherine Dunham black American company, and he was his first regular male lover.

A generous host, Horton gave lavish parties at his Palm Beach weekender and his home at Potts Point.

[8] On his death one-fifth of the residue of the estate went to two daughters of Christopher Davis, another fifth to two cousins, and the remaining three-fifths to the National Trust and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

[9] It was a condition of Horton's bequest to the Art Gallery of New South Wales that it display annually a painting of himself by Australian artist, Bryan Westwood.