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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

Grace Cossington Smith, OBE, 1974

Carol Jerrems

gelatin silver photograph on paper (image: 16.0cm x 24.0cm. frame: 43.2cm x 58.5cm)
Grace Cossington Smith, OBE, 1974

Grace Cossington Smith OBE (1892–1984), one of the most celebrated Australian painters of the 20th century, was a key early proponent of modernism in this country. She is pictured here at the age of 82, a year on from her major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, after which she stopped painting.

Jerrems skilfully plays with mirroring and the interplay of architectural space, blending the garden with the room’s interior and reflecting Cossington Smith across two surfaces: both the pane of glass on the closed door and the window at the right of the scene. This approach not only highlights Jerrems’ stylistic development and interest in reflections but also references Cossington Smith’s own work, particularly her 1955 painting Interior with Wardrobe Mirror, which features mirrored wardrobe doors angled to reveal the garden outside.

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of Mrs Joy Jerrems 1981.
© The Estate of Carol Jerrems

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Carol Jerrems: Portraits

Previous exhibition, 2024

Carol Jerrems: Portraits is a major exhibition of one of Australia’s most influential photographers. Jerrems’ intimate portraits of friends, lovers and artistic peers transcend the purely personal and have come to shape Australian visual culture.
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The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance
The National Portrait Gallery building front entrance
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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