Margaret Woodward (b. 1938), painter, grew up in Sydney where she gained a scholarship to study art at the NAS. While still a student, she won the Le Gay Brereton Prize for Drawing; she has since participated in countless solo and group exhibitions. From 1961 to 1971 she taught at various secondary schools and colleges; from 1972 to 1978 she taught at the West Australian Institute of Technology in Perth; from 1979 to 1985 she taught at Hornsby College of TAFE. Meanwhile, from 1967 she travelled widely through remote areas of Australia and abroad. She won the Wynne Prize in 1971 and the Portia Geach Memorial Awards in both 1983 and 1984. Recipient of a number of smaller prizes, she has been an Archibald finalist seven times, several times with self-portraits, of which she has made many over the course of her career (the ‘horned’ turban is characteristic.) The Art Gallery of New South Wales has four of her works and she is represented in a number of regional galleries.
In this portrait Margaret Woodward refers to a distant relative, Sarah Wisse or Wise. Said to have stolen one and a half cheeses and a small amount of clothing, Wisse was transported to New South Wales on the Indispensable in 1795-1796. Having partnered a John Roberts, she lived on Norfolk Island and then in Sydney. Between 1797 and 1815 she appears to have borne ten children.
The artist states that the fish in the painting make reference to the ‘actual presence of the sea, and food and security for Sarah’ on Norfolk Island. Referring to John 21:11, she writes that
[It] also alludes to the notion of the miraculous draught of fishes, where, by being required to put a net out on the other side of life’s boat, success was achieved, together with a new beginning. (In the Biblical story, 153 fishes were caught . . . I have simplified this to a symbolic 9 (1+5+3 . . . according to the Qabala [Kabbalah], this number indicates a point of resolution between the negative and the positive . . . The cup and saucer: It is to be hoped that for Sarah, her new life was an acceptable one, and to her liking (her cup of tea one might say). The hints of text are like graffiti, and are excerpts from Sarah’s judgement, seen between the barred background. She carries a bundle in her arms, representing the items she was suspected of having stolen (the loot). The painting is really concerned with the notion of judgement and time (indeed, it was an Archibald Prize entry and is not without additional covert touches of humour).
The painting was a finalist in the Archibald Prize of 1996.
Gift of the Karmel family in memory of Lena and Peter Karmel 2018. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Margaret Woodward/Copyright Agency, 2024
The portrait is titled Self portrait as Sarah Wisse, Transported. It was painted by Margaret Woodward in 1996 with oil on canvas. The work measures over two and a half metres tall by over one and a half metres wide in its frame. The frame is of smooth polished timber with a delicate pattern of knotted wood grain and an inner rim of gold.
The portrait shows the artist as Sarah Wisse, a distant relative who was deported to NSW around 1796. Sarah clutches a bundle; the cheese and clothing she was convicted of stealing. In the foreground is a table laden with fish, representing the sea, food, security, and a Bible passage from John 21:11.
The background of the work is painted with glossy deep red-black. This colour frames the portrait, with a narrow strip running across the top and down either side in wider bands. The inner rectangle of the composition is outlined in black and a thin line of white. The upper part of the rectangle has a black ground with patches of grey and blue, overlain with vertical black bars, the scratchy profile of a sailing ship and cursive text, only some words legible, from Sarah’s judgement.
Moving down the portrait, the blacks and greys continue but with some splashes of bright orange-red. A narrow ribbon of white describes the curve of the back of a chair against which Sarah rests her head. A turban covers her hair, sitting close over her forehead, then protruding horn-like on the left side of her head. Her face and neck, touched by light coming from the right of the scene, are rendered in with warm pinks and pale turquoise highlights. Sarah’s dark eyes look directly at us, and her mouth is closed with the corners downturned. Her neck is bare apart from the shadow of one of the bars falling over her left shoulder.
She wears a loose black-grey garment with low round neck and long voluminous sleeves. Both hands, in grey and black shadow, are held up to her chest, fingers grasping onto a bundle of grey cloth.
Beneath the bundle at hip level is a bright table, painted as if from above. Its square surface is in creams with dashes of pinkish-oranges. Arranged on top are nine fish, heads and tails in different directions, scales gleaming silver and copper, round eyes staring, lips pursed. On the top right corner of the table is a teacup and saucer with a blue and white pattern.
Audio description written by Lucinda Shawcross and voiced by Marina Neilsen
Margaret Woodward (age 58 in 1996)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Visit us, learn with us, support us or work with us! Here’s a range of information about planning your visit, our history and more!
We depend on your support to keep creating our programs, exhibitions, publications and building the amazing portrait collection!
