Title
Self portrait
1930
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1930
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 61.3 x 51.1 cm stretcher; 74.3 x 64.2 x 6.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.l. corner, pencil "Margaret Preston/30".
- Credit
- Gift of the artist at the request of the Trustees 1930
- Location
- South Building, ground level, 20th-century galleries
- Accession number
- 937
- Copyright
- © Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Artist information
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Margaret Preston
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Margaret Preston painted this portrait in 1930 at the request of the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She confessed she was thrilled to receive the commission to paint what was, for her, an untested subject. As she later pointed out, '… my self-portrait is completed, but I am a flower painter – I am not a flower'. In a work as carefully designed and as uncompromising as the artist's still-lifes, Preston identifies and separates the essentials of her art: her brush and palette and a pot of wildflowers, a favourite subject, on the sill behind her.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 19 exhibitions
Exhibition of Australian women painters, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 1946–18 Aug 1946
Artists by artists (1954), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Nov 1954–05 Dec 1954
Some interesting Australians: A loan collection of portraits, Georges Gallery, Melbourne, 08 Aug 1967–26 Aug 1967
Australian women artists: one hundred years, 1840-1940, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 Oct 1975–02 Nov 1975
Project 21 - Womens images of women (1977), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Oct 1977–13 Nov 1977
Face to face: Australian portraits, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1986–1986
Uncommon Australians: Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], Melbourne, 06 May 1992–28 Jun 1992
Uncommon Australians: Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 10 Jul 1992–09 Aug 1992
Uncommon Australians: Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 25 Aug 1992–20 Sep 1992
Uncommon Australians: Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Oct 1992–22 Nov 1992
Uncommon Australians: Towards an Australian Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 03 Dec 1992–31 Jan 1993
South Australian Women Artists: 1890s - 1940s, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 15 Apr 1994–17 Jul 1994
Cover up: the art of magazine covers in Australia, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, 19 May 1995–13 Aug 1995
Cover up: the art of magazine covers in Australia, The George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, 31 Aug 1995–08 Oct 1995
Cover up: the art of magazine covers in Australia, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 26 Oct 1995–31 Oct 1996
Inaugural permanent display, National Portrait Gallery [Old Parliament House], Canberra, 04 Mar 1999–04 Mar 2000
Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000
Margaret Preston in Mosman, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman, 07 Sep 2002–13 Oct 2002
To look within: Self portraits in Australia, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 16 Apr 2004–20 Jun 2004
To look within: Self portraits in Australia, National Portrait Gallery [Old Parliament House], Canberra, 09 Jul 2004–19 Sep 2004
Margaret Preston retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 Jul 2005–23 Oct 2005
Margaret Preston retrospective, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne, 12 Nov 2005–29 Jan 2006
Margaret Preston retrospective, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 18 Feb 2006–07 May 2006
Margaret Preston retrospective, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 26 May 2006–13 Aug 2006
Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, 05 Oct 2011–27 Nov 2011
Australian modern masterpieces from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 10 Dec 2011–04 Mar 2012
Sydney Moderns, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 2013–07 Oct 2013
O'Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 12 Oct 2016–19 Feb 2017
O'Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 11 Mar 2017–11 Jun 2017
O'Keeffe, Preston, Cossington Smith: Making Modernism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 01 Jul 2017–02 Oct 2017
Know My Name: Australian women artists, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 14 Sep 2020–04 Aug 2021
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 48 publications
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Jude Adams, Barbara Hall and Jennifer Barber, Project 21: Women's images of women, Sydney, 1977, 2-3. cat.no. 31; Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
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Janine Burke, Australian women artists 1840-1940, Collingwood, 1980, 136 (colour illus.), 175. plate no. 63
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Elizabeth Butel, Margaret Preston: the art of constant rearrangement, '1920-1930', pg. 25-49, Ringwood, 1985, 43 (colour illus.), 86. cat.no. O.10
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Roger Arthur Butler, The prints of Margaret Preston: a catalogue raisonné, Canberra, 2005, 23 (colour illus.), 35.
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Roger Arthur Butler, The prints of Margaret Preston: a catalogue raisonné, Canberra, 1987, 17 (illus.).
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE and Ursula Prunster, Face to face: Australian portraits, Sydney, 1986, (colour illus.). cat.no. 6
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Katrina Cashman., Margaret Preston in Mosman, 'Margaret Preston in Mosman', Mosman, 2002, (colour illus.). not paginated; no catalogue numbers
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Louise Chamberlin, Art In Sight, Sydney, 1996, 141, 144, 145, 149, 151, 155, 171.
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Jonathan Cooper (Editor), Exhibitions events - Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Aug 2000-Oct 2000, 6 (colour illus., detail), 7.
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Penelope Curtin and Tansy Curtin, Blooms and brushstrokes: a floral history of Australian art, 'Flowers A-Z: Christmas bells', pg. 46-47, Mile End, 46, 47 (colour illus.), 193.
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Susanna de Vries, The complete book of great Australian women: thirty-six women who changed the course of Australia, 'Margaret Rose Preston', pg. 547-563, Pymble, 2003, 547 (illus.), 557.
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Deborah Edwards, Uncommon Australians: towards an Australian portrait gallery, 'Margaret Preston', pg. 89, Sydney, 1992, 89 (colour illus). plate no. 56
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Deborah Edwards and Rose Peel, Margaret Preston: Catalogue raisonné of paintings, monotypes and ceramics, Sydney, 2005, (colour illus.). Artworks: paintings 1930.
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Deborah Edwards, Art and Australia (Vol. 43, No. 1), 'Margaret Preston', pg. 103-107, Sydney, Sep 2005-Nov 2005, 105 (colour illus.).
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Deborah Edwards, Australian art: in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 'Moderns', pg. 103-104, Sydney, 2000, 104, 121 (colour illus.), 301.
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Ewing and George Paton Galleries, Australian women artists: One hundred years 1840-1940, Melbourne, 1975, 28. cat.no. 48
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Graham Ferres and Susan Ferres, Mouse Art: Creating Art On The Computer, Sydney, 1998, plate no. 5 (colour illus.). NOTE: between pages 56-57
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Anna Gray, Face: Australian portraits 1880-1960, Canberra, 2010, 92 (colour illus.).
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Sasha Grishin, The Canberra times, 'The Preston question', pg. 8-9, Ainslie, 25 Sep 2005, 8 (illus.). 'Relax' lift out from Sunday edition.
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John Healey (Editor), S.A.'s greats: the men and women of the North Terrace plaques, 'Margaret Presont (1875-1963), Artist', pg. 106, Kent Town, 2001, 106 (illus.).
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Robert Holden, Cover Up: The art of magazine covers in Australia, Sydney, 1995, 21, 26-27, 95.
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Joan Kerr, Art Monthly Australia, 'The possibilities of a National Portrait Gallery', pg. 4-8, Canberra, Apr 1999, 7.
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Lou Klepac, Barry Pearce, Bruce James, John McDonald, Peter Pinson, Gavin Fry, Sasha Grishin AM and Deborah Hart, Australian painters of the twentieth century, Sydney, 2000, 24.
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Rosemary Lloyd, Yearbook of comparative and general literature [Vol. 49, 2001], 'Objects in the mirror: gendering the still life', pg. 39-55, Bloomington, 2002, 47, 53 (illus.).
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Rosemary Lloyd, Shimmering in a transformed light: writing the still life, 'Looking in, looking out: objects in the mirror', pg. 114-132, Ithaca, 2005, 126, 127 (illus.), 129. figure no. 13
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Alan McCulloch, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Paintings by the hundred', pg. 24, Sydney, 11 Sep 1963, 24 (illus.).
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Humphrey McQueen, The black swan of trespass: the emergence of Modernist painting in Australia to 1944, Sydney, 1979, 153, (colour illus.). plate no. I
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Denise Mimmocchi, Sydney moderns: art for a new world, 'Making Sydney modern: the artistic shaping of the postwar city', pg. 66-85, Sydney, 2013, 90 (colour illus.), 315.
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Hal Missingham, Artists by artists, Sydney, 1954, 20, 60 (illus.). cat.no. 57
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Hal Missingham, Art and Australia [series 5, vol. 1, no. 2], 'Margaret Preston', pg. 90-98, Sydney, Aug 1963, 92, 93 (illus.).
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Drusilla Modjeska, Stravinsky's lunch, 'No Man's Land', pg. 177-202, Sydney, 1999, 191 (illus.), 192,.
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Catriona Moore, Margaret Preston, 'Self Portrait', pg. 148, Sydney, 2005, 147, 148, 149 (colour illus.), 266.
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William Moore, The story of Australian art from the earliest known art of the continent to the art of today (Vol. 1), 'Galleries', pg. 179-214, Sydney, 1934, (illus.).
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Timothy Morrell, Art Monthly Australia, 'To look within: Self portraits in Australia at the University of Queensland Art Museum', pg. 26-29, Canberra, Jul 2004, 27.
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Ian North, The art of Margaret Preston, South Australia, 1980, 25 (colour illus.), 48 (illus.). cat.no. O.28
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Georgina Pemberton, H&H: Hoofs & horns, 'Portrait of a lady', pg. 128-129, Neutral Bay, Autumn 2005, 128 (colour illus.).
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Ros Pesman, Duty Free - Australian Women Abroad, Sydney, 1996.
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Margaret Preston., Exhibition of Australian women painters, 'Introduction', Sydney, 1946. cat.no. 27; titled 'Self portrait'
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Andrew Sayers, To look within: self portraits in Australia, 'The artist's self-portrait in Australia', pg. 6-33, Brisbane, 2004, 18, 19 (colour illus.).
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Andrew Sayers (Director), National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 1999, (colour illus.).
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Tristan Sharp, Teaching history, 'Margaret Preston', pg. 4-5, Wareemba, Mar 2005, front cover (colour illus.).
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Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales: Minutes 20.12.1929-11.5.1937, Sydney, 1929-1937, 1103 (20 December 1929), 1119 (28 February 1940).
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Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales: Minutes 25.5.1923-28.11.1929, Sydney, 1923-1929, 1094-1095 (22 November 1929).
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Sydney Ure Smith and Leon Gellert (Editors), Art in Australia [series 3, no. 31], Sydney, Mar 1930, (illus.). cat.no. 65
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Women's Council of the National Gallery and Cultural Centre, Some interesting Australians: a loan collection of portraits, Melbourne, 1967. cat.no. 64; not paginated
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Editor Unknown (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Woman painter honoured', pg. 6, Sydney, 09 Apr 1930, (illus.).
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Author Unknown, South Australian Women Artists: 1890s - 1940s, Apr 1994, 11 (colour illus.). figure no. 11
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Editor Unknown (Editor), Australian artist, 'Australian Icons at the Art Gallery of New South Wales', pg, 4-5, Chatswood, Aug 2000, 5 (colour illus.).
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