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Margaret Preston (1875 - 1963) was a widely known Australian artist. She was very influential during the 1920s to 1940s for her modernist works as a painter and printmaker and her views promoting Aboriginal art in contemporary art and design. Born Margaret Rose Mcpherson in1875 , Margaret decided early in life to become an artist. In 1888 she trained with Sydney landscape painter W. Lister Lister. In 1893 she enrolled at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School where she studied art for just over four years. Following her time in Melbourne she registered as student at the South Australian School of Design, Painting and Technical Arts in Adelaide in 1898. During her studies she had been influenced by the German aesthetic tradition, which emphasised the importance of rendering a subject as it would appear in nature. Margaret first travelled to Europe in 1904, studying in Paris and Munich. With the outbreak of World War I Margaret travelled to England, where she exhibited at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Society of Women Artists. In 1916, she enrolled at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts studying pottery, fabric printing and dyeing, basket weaving and the many techniques of printmaking. In 1919 Margaret married the wealthy businessman William George Preston, and settled in the Sydney Harbour-side suburb of Mosman. The colourful woodcut views of Sydney harbour, vases of Australian flowers, birds and animals that she produced in the 1920s remain her best known work.
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