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An image of Circular Quay by Margaret Preston

Margaret Preston

(Australia, England, France 29 Apr 1875–28 May 1963)

Title
Circular Quay
Year
(1925)
Media category
Print
Materials used
woodcut, printed in black ink, hand-coloured with gouache on thin ivory mulberry paper
Edition
19th proof from an edition of 50, hand coloured
Dimensions

24.7 x 24.4cm blockmark; 34.8 x 29.5cm sheet

Signature & date
Signed in block to print l.l., incised "MP". Signed l.r. beneath blockmark, pencil "Margaret Preston". Not dated.
Credit
Purchased 1964
Accession number
DA28.1964
Copyright
© Margaret Rose Preston Estate. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney
Location
Not on display
Further information

Margaret Preston was one of the most innovative and prolific printmakers of her generation, producing etchings, monotypes, screenprints and stencil prints, as well as various types of relief prints, including woodcuts, linocuts and masonite cuts.

These classic images of Sydney Harbour were made by Preston in 1925 and are some of her best-known and most popular prints of Sydney. It was an important year for Preston and her activity as a printmaker, when she included sixty-five prints in a joint exhibition in Sydney and Melbourne with her friend and contemporary Thea Proctor, whom she had introduced to woodcuts. The exhibition received favourable critical comment and the prints attracted considerable public attention and appreciation.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

Bibliography (19)

Jaynie Anderson (Editor), The Cambridge companion to Australian Art, Port Melbourne, 2011, 226, 362-363. fig.no. 17.9 (colour illus.), between pg. 220 and 221.

Helen Campbell (Australia) (Author), Colour, rhythm, design: wood & lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Sydney, 2010, 6 (colour illus.).

Roger Butler (Australia, b.1948) (Author), Printed images by Australian artists 1885-1955, Canberra, 2007, 169 (illus.). printed in black ink, not hand-coloured; Collection of the National Gallery of Australia

Roger Butler (Australia, b.1948) (Author), The prints of Margaret Preston: a catalogue raisonné, Canberra, 2005, 117. cat.no. 84; NOTE: this is not the AGNSW impression.

Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), Margaret Preston, Sydney, 2005, 80, 82, 92 (colour illus.).

John Slater (England) (Author), Through artists' eyes: Australian suburbs and their cities 1919-1945, Melbourne, 2004, viii (colour illus., detail), xi, 22 (colour illus.). illus. no. 10

Aspects of Australian art 2000, 2000, (illus.). card no. 5: Margaret Preston 'Implement blue' 1927

Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 192 (colour illus.).

Hendrik Kolenberg (Netherlands; Australia) (Author), Anne Ryan (Australia) (Author), Australian prints from the Gallery's collection, Sydney, 1998, 61 (colour illus.). cat.no. 49

Art-i-facts: Book Two, an exploration of ideas in drawing 1998, 1998, 29, 87 (colour illus.).

The Brett Whiteley Studio (Australia, estab. 1994) (Editor), Big blue: the painted harbour (list of works), Sydney, 1997.

Roger Butler (Australia, b.1948) (Author), Sydney by design: wood and linoblock prints by Sydney women artists between the wars, Canberra, 1995, 23 (illus.), 48. Collection of the National Art Gallery of Australia

Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 37 (colour illus.).

Kay Vernon (Author), Harbour hymns, city songs: visions of Sydney from the collection, Sydney, 1990. cat.no. 51

Roger Butler (Australia, b.1948) (Author), Dana Rowan (Editor), Judith Thorne (Editor), The prints of Margaret Preston: a catalogue raisonné, Canberra, 1987, 105 (colour illus.). cat.no. 84; NOTE: this is not the AGNSW impression.

Josef Lebovic (Australia) (Author), Masterpieces of Australian printmaking, Paddington, 1987, 100, 101 (colour illus.). cat.no. 140; NOTE: this is not the AGNSW impression.

Elizabeth Butel (Author), Nicholas Draffin (Australia, b.1943, d.1995) (Researcher), Margaret Preston: the art of constant rearrangement, Ringwood, 1985, 29, 31 (colour illus.), 87. cat.no. P.11

Ian North (New Zealand; Australia, b.1945) (Author), The art of Margaret Preston, South Australia, 1980, 19 (colour illus.), 53 (illus.). cat.no. P.10

The Home: an Australian quarterly Mar 1928, Mar 1928, front cover (illus.).

Exhibition history (8)

Margaret Preston: the art of constant rearrangement, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 Dec 1985–09 Feb 1986.

Harbour hymns, city songs: visions of Sydney from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 Jan 1990–11 Mar 1990.

Big Blue - the painted harbour (1997), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 Jun 1997–29 Mar 1998.

Australian prints from the Gallery's collection (1998-1999), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 06 Nov 1998–07 Feb 1999.

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.

Margaret Preston in Mosman, Mosman Art Gallery, 07 Sep 2002–13 Oct 2002.

Margaret Preston retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 29 Jul 2005–23 Oct 2005.

Australian Collection Focus: Colour, Rhythm, Design - wood & lino cuts of the 20s & 30s, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 12 Mar 2010–11 Jul 2010.