Newsflash:

The Library is open on the King's Birthday public holiday, Monday 12 June 2023. View the public holiday opening hours.

Margaret Coen1932

by Edmund Arthur Harvey

Artist Margaret Coen was in her early twenties when this portrait was made. It was painted in a studio in a condemned building, next to Pfahlert’s Hotel, which overlooked Wynyard Park in Margaret Street, Sydney. Coen’s enthusiastic involvement with the Circular Quay artistic community — a strong friendship with Norman Lindsay developed at this time — introduced her to the English-born artist, Edmund Arthur Harvey, trained in Sydney and Paris, who painted this portrait in 1932. It was a finalist in the Archibald Prize, at the Art Gallery of NSW, for 1932.

Coen was known for her watercolours, paintings of flowers, landscapes and still-life works. She married journalist and writer Douglas Stewart in 1945. Her papers are held by the Library.