Rosalie Gascoigne (1917–1999), artist, came to Australia from New Zealand in 1943 to marry the astronomer Ben Gascoigne. For some years they lived on Mount Stromlo, where Rosalie absorbed the textures, colours and light of the landscape. With no formal art training, nor capacity to draw, in the 1970s she began making objects and 'assemblages' from natural and man-made materials she had salvaged and hoarded. In 1974 she exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney; just four years later she had a survey show at the National Gallery of Victoria. The only visual artist of major stature to engage with the landscape of the Canberra region over a long period, over the ensuing decades she made a series of majestic representations of the surrounding country. In 2008–2009 the NGV mounted a major retrospective, confirming Gascoigne as one of the handful of artists whose work has changed the way Australians see their landscape.
Greg Weight took this photo of 77-year-old Gascoigne in her backyard, with her work made from an old window frame and a corrugated iron curtain. As he noted in his book Australian Artists: 'We carried the artwork into the yard in the late afternoon light and, with only minutes to spare, Rosalie stood behind the Pink Window and balanced the work on a garden chair. Standing on her toes she peeped from behind the curtain.'
Gift of Patrick Corrigan AM 2004. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Gregory Weight/Copyright Agency, 2024
The portrait of artist Rosalie Gascoigne by Greg Weight, 1993, is a black and white photograph. It is 45.5 centimetres high by 35.6 centimetres wide. A silver gelatin print, a process which produces deep velvety tones.
Rosalie is a mature woman standing in a back yard in front of a shoulder height wooden fence with a large tree behind it. In front of Rosalie is a large wooden window frame that creates an internal framing edge on the bottom and sides of the picture. The top edge of the window is not connected to anything, and the tree and sky continue above it.
The window frame is divided into quarters with Rosalie’s face appearing in the upper left quadrant and the trunk of her body in the lower left quadrant. A large piece of old corrugated iron hangs across the right-hand side of the window like a curtain, its bottom edge finishing about three quarters of the way down the window. The iron is bent and dented, punctured with nail holes and grime, its lower edge slightly curved, rising towards the left where it meets the frame.
Rosalie has thick short light-coloured hair that sits in a sweeping wave across her forehead and tucks behind her ears. She has deep set hooded eyes and is wearing large glasses with light-coloured frames. Her right cheek is slightly lifted, her lips are together, and a tentative smile plays around the right corner of her mouth. She wears a black and white boldly patterned shirt underneath a dark round-necked heavy knit jumper.
Audio description script written by Krysia Kitch and voiced by Kate Matthews
Patrick Corrigan AM (130 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Greg Weight on working with Jiawei Shen, and starting out as a photographer.
Portraits of philanthropists in the collection honour their contributions to Australia and acknowledge their support of the National Portrait Gallery.
