Margaret Preston, c. 1930

Margaret Preston (1875–1963), artist, trained at the NGV School and the Adelaide School of Design before leasing a studio and beginning to teach in Adelaide. After travel studies in Germany, France and Spain between 1904 and 1907 she returned to Adelaide to take on an increased teaching load. In 1912 she went to London, spending seven years there and in Europe before marrying and setting up house in the Sydney harbourside suburb of Mosman in 1920. Based in Sydney for the rest of her life, though travelling extensively, she campaigned vigorously on behalf of modern art while bringing forth a large body of robust paintings and prints. Preston was one of the first artists to recognise the significance and aesthetic power of Indigenous Australian art, the influence of which can be seen in some of her own work. She also saw the beauty in the native flowers and trees from which contemporaries such as Thea Proctor recoiled. Since the 1980s, many of her works have numbered amongst the most recognisable images of Australian art. The major Art Gallery of New South Wales retrospective, Margaret Preston: Art and Life toured in 2005.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM and Barbara Corrigan 2008
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.


Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program