This portrait of artist George Duncan (1904–1974) by Alison Rehfisch is a characteristic example of her work: painted on hessian in a post-impressionist style that employs rhythmic, structured composition, simple forms and a bold yet harmonious use of colour. Rehfisch studied at Julian Ashton’s art school in Sydney but left at the age of 19 to marry. After her daughter started school, Rehfisch returned to painting, training at Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo’s atelier, where she met Duncan. She held her first show at the Blaxland Gallery in 1929 and began exhibiting with the Society of Artists in 1931. By this time, she and her husband had separated. Heading to London in 1933, she studied at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. In 1938, Rehfisch returned to Sydney, where she and Duncan married in 1942. The couple were active in Sydney’s contemporary art community and exhibited their work together at Sydney’s Macquarie Galleries. In 1947 they moved to Berrima, painting the landscapes around Goulburn and the Southern Highlands before returning to Sydney in 1951 where Duncan became director of the influential David Jones Art Gallery.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Mrs Margaret Adams 1999
© Estate of Alison Rehfisch
Margaret Adams (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
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Drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection, this salon-style hang references the lavish 18th- and 19th-century European salons where paintings were hung floor-to-ceiling.
Eye to Eye is a summer Portrait Gallery Collection remix arranged by degree of eye contact – from turned away with eyes closed all the way through to right-back-at-you – as we explore artists’ and subjects’ choices around the direction of the gaze.
