Margaret Olley AC was an integral part of the community of artists
who shaped the Sydney art scene after the Second World War. Her circle
of friends and colleagues included Jeffrey Smart, Russell Drysdale and
William Dobell, whose portrait of Olley was awarded the 1948 Archibald
Prize. Her first solo exhibition at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney
the same year was a sell-out, and from that beginning, she held at least
one solo exhibition annually. Her legacy is not only as a painter but
as an arts patron and benefactor: since its foundation in 1990, the
Margaret Olley Art Trust has donated many Australian and international
artworks to public collections nationwide. Tweed River Art Gallery is
home to the Margaret Olley Art Centre, which includes a reproduction of
Olley’s studio and living space.
Though considered primarily
a painter of interiors and still life, Olley 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, this 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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Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
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