Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (1909–2012) contributed unstintingly to cultural, educational, medical, environmental and community causes throughout her life. Born in Melbourne, she married newspaper proprietor Keith Murdoch in 1928 and moved to Cruden Farm near Langwarrin, where they raised their four children. In 1933 she joined the management committee of the Royal Children's Hospital, of which she was president from 1954 to 1965 and enabled the establishment of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in 1986. She supported the work of the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the Royal Institute for Deaf & Blind Children, the Burnet Institute and the Bionic Ear Institute. The first woman to serve on the council of the National Gallery of Victoria, she endowed the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Foundation, the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Arboretum and the Australian Ballet, and supported a range of programs to assist prisoners, children in care and other marginalised groups.
Dame Elisabeth was integral to the founding of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop – now the Australian Tapestry Workshop – in 1976, making them the obvious choice to create her portrait for the Gallery's collection. Former ATW Director Sue Walker recalls that Murdoch took great interest in the creation of her portrait, 'exhibiting her famous, exuberant excitement at the completion of the weaving'.
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2000
© Australian Tapestry Workshop
This is a delicate mixed media portrait of philanthropist and founding patron of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, created in 2000 by the now-named Australian Tapestry Workshop. It measures approximately 145 centimetres by 125 centimetres. The image was composed by painter Christopher Pyett, adapted on computer by printmaker Normana Wight and woven on the loom by Merrill Dumbrell.
It is displayed hanging between a white backing board and clear Perspex cover.
Elisabeth is shown from the chest up, her body angled slightly to the right and facing front on. Behind her, the lush greenery of her garden at Cruden Farm, Langwarrin. Wool and cotton woven threads create a textured surface. Different colour threads in the weft are bundled together to produce a flecked effect, enhancing the texture and blending a palette of creams, pinks and greens together across the surface of the work.
Garden foliage fills the background in a simplified and abstracted design. At the top, deep olive-green tones give a sense of depth, transitioning downwards to a range of bright and dark greens and yellows marking abstracted leaves, branches, and shrubbery, and creams and soft pinks creating blossoms.
Elisabeth is positioned against this garden backdrop, seen from the chest up, facing forward while leaning back and towards the left.
Her warm creamy skin has sparse amounts of purples, pinks, and yellow-green threads interwoven, introducing colours used in the background and clothing. Her white hair is pulled back from her face in a loose fashion, tied at the nape of her neck, tendrils escaping. Her forehead is gently furrowed above white framed glasses. Elisabeth gazes outwards with violet eyes lined with gentle wrinkles and hooded eyelids. Her closed blush pink lips are relaxed and have deep crevices on either side above a soft chin. Her neck emerges from a collared blouse woven in an intricate floral pattern of pinks, purples, charcoal grey, white and cream.
Her left hand is pulled up to gently rest upon her upper chest. Elisabeth’s fingers are slightly splayed, swollen at the joints, showing signs of age and arthritis, revealing a wedding band and a plain faced silver wristwatch.
Audio Description written by Alana Sivell and read by Amy Middleby
Australian Tapestry Workshop (age 24 in 2000)
Merrill Dumbrell (age 24 in 2000)
Christopher Pyett (age 24 in 2000)
Normana Wight (age 24 in 2000)
Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (age 91 in 2000)
Marilyn Darling AC (33 portraits supported)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Joanna Gilmour reflects on 25 years of collecting at the National Portrait Gallery.
An interview with Victorian Tapestry Workshop artists Sue Walker and Christopher Pyett.
