Published in Art in Australia in 1927, this woodcut reached a wider audience than most of Preston’s relief prints. Despite an edition of 32, detached impressions rarely appear at auction — only around seven in the past 20 years. Its publication history adds to its desirability, representing Preston at her most conscious of printmaking as a vehicle for national identity.

VIEW EXHIBITION
Margaret Preston

Australian Flowers, 1927

woodcut, hand coloured
edition of initialled “MP.” in block lower left; from an edition of 32; titled and signed in pencil in lower margin
10.9 × 11 cm (4.3 × 4.3 in), framed

EXHIBITIONS

A Survey of Australian Relief Prints 1900–1950, Deutscher Galleries, Melbourne, 13 Apr – 5 May 1978, cat. 29 (another impression).

LITERATURE

Art in Australia, “Margaret Preston Number,” No. 22, December 1927 (deluxe edition with the woodcut tipped-in);

Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1987, cat. 120, p. 131; Butler, R., 2005, p. 141, cat. 120 (illus., another impression).

Published in Art in Australia in 1927, this woodcut reached a wider audience than most of Preston’s relief prints. Despite an edition of 32, detached impressions rarely appear at auction — only around seven in the past 20 years. Its publication history adds to its desirability, representing Preston at her most conscious of printmaking as a vehicle for national identity.

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