This portrait of Margaret’s father was painted when she was only 15 years old. It explores her early interest in using a flat brush to place strokes of pure colour side by side to create an effect. It draws on her early interest in Cezanne and the modernists who she studied at school. Her father was a lecturer in French at Sydney University, Margaret excelling at the language and often incorporating scribbled words into her work.

1953 marked a period of reconnection with her father (her parents divorced when she was four years of age) and the portrait is both tender yet exhibits her respect for his knowledge and guidance. At this time, he had begun to include Margaret in his ABC French for Schools radio broadcast bringing the two closer together. While the portrait is by an artist in her infancy, Margaret exhibits a daring ability to exact a likeness and accompany that likeness with a subject’s personality.