James Stuart Macdonald was an art administrator, art critic and artist. He was Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales (1928-1936), and subsequently Director of the National Gallery of Victoria (1936-1940). During the 1940s he was also art critic for the Age. In 1943 Macdonald gained a certain notoriety as a witness in the action brought against the judges of the Archibald Prize, who had awarded the prize to William Dobell for his unconventional portrait of artist Joshua Smith.
