Dame Helen Blaxland

Dame Helen Blaxland DBE (1907–1989), conservationist and fundraiser, studied at the Julian Ashton School of Art in Sydney. She and her husband Gregory Blaxland lived in a nineteenth-century mansion in Woollahra, 'Brush', and were significant collectors of the work of Australian artists. During the Second World War Blaxland worked as a fundraiser for the Australian Red Cross Society, where she stayed until 1951. She served on the council of the new Art Gallery Society of New South Wales in the early 1950s, and in 1959 played a major part in setting up the National Trust. Blaxland was a trustee of the National Parks and Wildlife Foundation and chair of the Australiana Fund, set up to acquire works of art and furniture for the four official Commonwealth residences. Late in life she moved to Camden Park House, to live with her daughter Antonia.

Max Dupain's portrait of Blaxland captures the intimacy of long-term friendship. They first met in 1946, when Blaxland published Flower Pieces, a book on the art of floral arrangement, with photographs by Dupain and Olive Cotton. They later collaborated on the exhibition No Time to Spare, featuring photographs by Dupain, which was shown at the David Jones Art Gallery in 1962 to raise awareness of the need to preserve Sydney's colonial buildings.

Gift of Danina Dupain Anderson 2021. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Max Dupain/Copyright Agency, 2024