Margaret Preston (1875 - 1963)
nee Rose McPherson
click here to view works by Margaret Preston

Biography

Margaret Preston was born Margaret Rose McPherson in Port Adelaide, 1875, and died in Mosman, Sydney in 1963.

Exhibitions

Preston held many solo shows and was included in important group exhibitions during her lifetime. In 1929 the Art Gallery of New South Wales commissioned her to paint a self-portrait.

Her work has been included in both state and regional historical Australian art shows and major retrospectives of her work have been held at the Art Gallery of NSW and the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Awards

1929 Art Gallery of New South Wales commissioned a self-portrait to be painted
1937 Paris International Exhibition, Silver Medal

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and all state gallery collections
Regional collections in Australia and New Zealand
University collections Australia wide and internationally including Yale University, regional and public collection in Australia and New Zealand

Selected Exhibitions

1914 Exhibits at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club, London
1915 Society of Women Artists exhibition, London
1925 Thea Proctor and Margaret Preston joint exhibition, Grosvenor Galleries and selected tour
1942 William Dobell and Margaret Preston joint exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1946 Australian Women Painters, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1975 Australian Women Artists: 1840-1940, Ewing and George Paterson Galleries and selected tour
1980 The Art of Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of South Australia
1985-86 Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1987 Art and the West, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1988 The Great Australian Art Exhibition, touring
1988 The Face of Australia, touring
1993 A Century of Australian Women Artists: 1840-1940, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne
2000 Australian Icons, Art Gallery of New South Wales
2000-01 Modern Australian Women: 1925-1945, Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Australia, S.H. Ervin Gallery and Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
2001 Federation: Australian Art and Society: 1901-2001, National Gallery of Australia
2002 Margaret Preston in Mosman, Mosman Art Gallery
During her lifetime Preston also exhibited in the annual shows of the Society of Artists, Sydney and the Art Association of Australia, Melbourne

Selected Bibliography

Ambrus, C., The Ladies Picture Show: Source on a Century of Australian Women Artists, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1984
Burke, J., Australian Woman Artists: 1980-1940, Greenhouse, Melbourne, 1980
Butel, E., Margaret Preston: The Art of Constant Rearrangement, Penguin, Melbourne, 1986
Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1987
Edwards, D., Peel, R. and Perlins, H., Margaret Preston: The Brown Pot 1940, I lived in Berowra 1941, Grey Day in the Ranges 1942, Australian Collection Focus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998
Missingham, H., 'Margaret Preston', article in the Art gallery of New South Wales quarterly, vol 5 no 2, Jan 1964
North, I. (ed.), The Art of Margaret Preston, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1980

More

For more information, click here to visit the official Margaret Preston site. This link is included with kind permission from Tom Thompson of ETT Imprint - the publisher of Margaret Preston (Elizabeth Butel, ETT Imprint, 2003).

click here to view works by Margaret Preston