A CHARITY exhibition at Sydney Children's Hospital of works by some of Australia's leading artists has collapsed after hospital officials saw one of the works - a photograph by the Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton - in which her six-year-old son is shown naked from the waist up.

The decision will cost the hospital an estimated $200,000.

Considered inappropriate ... Eye Land of Kell, a photograph of the artist's son, aged six.

The exhibition, organised by the art adviser and broker Virginia Wilson Art, will go ahead in March and the proceeds will be donated to another charity, Midnight Basketball, which runs workshops and tournaments for youth who are at risk.

Barton won the Archibald in 2008 with You Are What Is Most Beautiful about Me, A Self Portrait with Kell and Arella, her son and daughter.