Painted in 1948, this early self-portrait shows Australian artist Margaret Olley placing herself literally “in the picture,” surrounded by the everyday objects and studio clutter that would shape her lifelong practice.
She painted herself as a young woman with long brown hair, tanned skin, calm face and wide eyes reflected in a mirror behind a crowded tabletop. She wears a casual patterned top and a round pearl necklace that catches the light. Her gaze is steady, directed just past us. In front of her, a narrow shelf and green wall frame an arrangement of postcards, shells, and a small photograph. The table in the foreground is draped with a pale yellow-green cloth, its surface packed with oranges, lemons, limes, apples, and a russet pear. At left, a jar brims with creamy strawflowers and red berries, beside a white sculpted head in profile and a conch seashell. Muted greens and browns enclose the scene, while the fruits and flowers glow in warm reds, oranges, and whites, turning this reflective “still life” into a layered self-portrait.
The fruits, flowers, carved head, shell, and postcards transform the table into a stage where domestic life, travel souvenirs, and art history coexist. Reproductions of earlier masterpieces on the postcards hint at her study of European painting and quietly claim a place for a young Australian woman among those “great masters.”
Created around the time of her first solo exhibition at Sydney’s Macquarie Galleries (when both the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria acquired her work), this painting catches Olley on the threshold of an international career. Soon after, she would become famous as the subject of William Dobell’s Archibald Prize portrait and leave for Europe. Here, though, she is still and self-possessed, using mirror, objects, and memory to declare that her own life, rooms, and relationships are worthy subjects for modern art.
“Portrait in the Mirror” by Margaret Olley (Australian) - Oil on cardboard / 1948 - Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) #WomenInArt #MargaretOlley #Olley #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #art #artText #arte #AustralianArtist #AustralianArt #SelfPortrait #ArtGalleryOfNewSouthWales