Margaret Olley AC (1923–2011), painter, was well known in the Sydney postwar art scene and her portrait was painted by Drysdale and Dobell – Dobell's painting won the 1948 Archibald Prize. Olley held her first one-person show that year. It was a sellout, and she held at least one solo exhibition annually from then on. In 1991 she reprised her success of 43 years before, when a show of 35 of her intimate, brilliantly coloured interiors and still lifes sold out again. In the 1980s she endowed the Margaret Hannah Olley Art Trust, of which several Australian galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery, have been beneficiaries. Olley remained a prominent arts identity to her death, continuing to paint, and posing for numerous portraits by younger artists she encouraged. Tweed River Art Gallery is home to the Margaret Olley Art Centre which includes a reproduction of Olley's studio and living space.
Photographer Greg Weight waited six months for this sitting with Olley. As he recalled in Australian Artists: Portraits by Greg Weight, when he a requested to photograph Olley at work in her studio she said, 'Absolutely not, nobody watches me painting, that is a very private affair'. Instead, she sat in a corner of the loungeroom where she had painted many works, the large window bringing southern light into the room.
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2023
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