We are thrilled to be assisting Ben Quilty’s Archibald Prize-winning portrait of Margaret Olley finds its way home to the Tweed!

Celebrated as Australia’s most distinguished painter of still life, Margaret Olley was a generous philanthropist with an enormous capacity for friendship. She first met Ben Quilty in 2002 when she was the guest judge for the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.  Quilty was awarded the prestigious Scholarship that year and over time the pair developed a bond formed through their mutual respect for each other’s work and capabilities. Olley’s support for the fledgling artist played a significant role in the development of his artistic career.

In 1948, Margaret Olley was the subject of an Archibald Prize-winning portrait by artist William Dobell. Herself a fledgling artist, at the age of 25, Olley was not prepared for the media frenzy that ensued after Dobell was announced the winner of the prize.

When Quilty asked Olley to sit for a portrait 63 years later, the senior artist at first declined. “She dismissed me in her typical, resilient, forceful way,” said Quilty. “But I didn’t give in easily.”

The portrait went on to win the 2011 Archibald Prize just months before Olley’s death on 26 July 2011. Quilty had captured his friend, mentor and fellow artist at the close of her extraordinary life and her enduring career that was bookended by these two Archibald Prize-winning portraits.  Quilty comments: “Although she was very reticent to sit for it, she loved the painting, and my Archibald win was an exclamation mark to her extraordinarily well-lived life.”

The Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre is home to Olley’s legacy, attracting thousands of visitors each year.