1929 Margaret Preston, limited edition print, flowers, framed antique artwork

Margaret Preston (1875–1963), Jug of Flowers, 1929 — Plate 6, a period black-and-white mechanical line reproduction from the deluxe publication Margaret Preston: Recent Paintings 1929, published by Art in Australia, Sydney, from numbered copy 184 of an edition of 250, now presented in a double cream mount and dark timber frame. Preston reduces the floral still life to vigorous black contours, rhythmic pattern and simplified forms, giving the overflowing bouquet and decorated jug the bold graphic character that made her 1920s work a defining expression of Australian modernism. The 1929 publication contained nine black-and-white plates, with this composition specifically recorded as Plate 6. 

33cm x 24cm frame

15cm x 11cm artwork 

About the Artist: Margaret Preston was born in Adelaide in 1875 and became one of Australia’s most influential modernist painters and printmakers. She trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and in Adelaide before spending extended periods in Europe, where she absorbed developments in modern European art and Japanese printmaking. After settling in Sydney in 1920, Preston became particularly celebrated for her forceful still lifes, native-flower subjects and woodcuts, using simplified forms, strong outlines and decorative pattern to promote a distinctly modern Australian visual language. She played an important role in the revival of Australian woodblock printing and was also a prolific writer and commentator on art. Her work is extensively represented in Australia’s major public collections.