About this work
In the mid 1920s Margaret Preston embarked upon a campaign to establish a national Australian art based on the Indigenous art of Australia. Shoalhaven Gorge, New South Wales is one of a group of paintings made between 1940 and 1946 that show Preston appropriating elements of Aboriginal art into her own work.
Margaret Preston commenced her studies in Sydney before attending the National Gallery School in Melbourne, where she studied under Frederick McCubbin. As a young woman she travelled widely, studying Japanese art at the Musée Guimet, Paris, and spending extended periods of time in the French capital.
The frame on Shoalhaven Gorge, New South Wales came with the painting in 2008. The backing board carries the label of the Acme Framing Company, Sydney, who first appear at 12 Cunningham st. in 1920.
The frame is characteristic of painted wooden profiles used in the 1940’s.
timber and paint