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.
Though Olley is considered primarily a painter of interiors and still life, she was involved in portraiture consistently throughout her career, and her self portraits are a wonderful synthesis of both aspects of her practice. Employing the mirror motif, Olley's self portrait is simultaneously evocative of both her inner life and the vivid, external world of her home and studio – bursting with flowers, fruit, artworks and artefacts – in which she found endless inspiration.
Purchased with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC and the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2021
© Margaret Olley Art Trust
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