Supreme Court unveils portrait of Iceland’s first female judge

Iceland’s Supreme Court has unveiled a portrait of Guðrún Erlendsdóttir, its former president and the first woman appointed as a judge there, mbl.is reported. Guðrún and the artist, Stephen Lárus Stephen, unveiled the painting at a ceremony on Friday.

Supreme Court President Benedikt Bogason said portraits of the court’s judges had once been customary, but the practice ended about 50 years ago. The court’s walls now display 12 portraits of judges, all men.

The idea for the new portrait came after a visiting student asked why the court displayed paintings only of men. The court then decided to add one portrait to the collection. Bogason described Guðrún as an important role model, particularly as a pioneer for women.

Guðrún was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986, after serving as an acting judge there from 1982 to 1983. She was president of the court from 1991 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2003. Since retiring in 2006, she has been appointed as an acting judge several times, most recently in 2018. She was also the first woman to hold a teaching post at the University of Iceland’s law faculty and received an honorary doctorate in 2018.