Early Life, Family and Training

Alison Rehfisch enters the world on 23 January 1900 in Woollahra, Sydney, born as Alison Baily Green. She grows up in Mosman, within a household where art is a constant presence. Her mother, a proficient sculptor, painter, and musician, provides the initial spark, encouraging the young girl's interest in drawing and painting. This domestic environment shapes her early inclinations toward visual expression.

The years 1913 to 1915 find her as a student at Redlands School in Cremorne. During this formative period, the influence of the painter Albert Collins begins to take hold. This early exposure to professional practice sets the stage for formal instruction. After leaving school, she moves into the structured environment of the Julian Ashton Art School to refine her technical skills.

By about 1925, the trajectory of her training shifts toward the Royal Art Society. Here, she studies under Antonio Dattilo Rubbo. This period of intense study marks a critical transition from a student of form to a developing artist, establishing the technical foundation that will support her later explorations of modernism.

Life and Work in London and Spain

London calls in 1933. Rehfisch leaves Australia behind to immerse herself in the metropolitan art scene, seeking a deeper engagement with modernist principles. She enters the Grosvenor School, where her practice undergoes a significant shift. Here, the focus moves toward the structured design and color theories that define her evolving aesthetic. She is no longer just a student of the traditional academies; she is a participant in a global movement of modernism.

The city provides a backdrop for work, study, and travel. She navigates the urban landscape, absorbing the energy of a Europe caught between the wars. This period of expansion includes a three-month stay in Spain. The continental influence settles into her technique, informing the way she handles form and composition. She moves through these spaces as an expatriate, refining a visual language that is increasingly rhythmic and deliberate.

Return to Sydney and Marriage

The year 1938 marks a definitive shift. After years of studying and traveling through London and Spain, Rehfisch returns to Sydney. The expatriate life gives way to a new domestic chapter. In 1942, she marries George Duncan. The two artists become a fixture in the local scene, their lives and creative practices intertwining as they navigate the complexities of the wartime era.

The couple becomes a visible presence in the city's evolving art community. They exhibit their work jointly at Macquarie Galleries, presenting a shared vision to the public. Rehfisch remains deeply embedded in the movements defining the era, maintaining active involvement with both the Contemporary Art Society and the Contemporary Group. Her presence in these circles cements her position within the modernist landscape of Australia.

Life in the Southern Highlands

Disaster strikes in 1947. A fire consumes the couple's home, and in the flames, several hundred of Alison's paintings are lost. The destruction forces a sudden departure from the city. She and George move to the country, seeking a new beginning away from the urban landscape.

The Southern Highlands become their temporary refuge for several years. The focus of her brush shifts toward the natural world. She and George spend their time painting the landscapes of Berrima, Moss Vale, and Goulburn. The rural scenery provides the backdrop for this period of transition.

Return to Sydney and Later Career

The move back to Sydney in 1953 marks a shift in the domestic landscape for the couple. George secures a position as director of the David Jones Art Gallery, pulling them away from the Southern Highlands and back into the urban center. They settle into a house named "Hillgrove" in Pymble. It is a space she decorates extensively, a project that consumes much of her attention while the mundane tasks of the household remain largely untouched.

Her studio practice continues, though the focus begins to drift. She maintains her engagement with still lifes and landscapes, yet a new preference emerges. She turns increasingly toward flower paintings. This shift in subject matter carries a cost; as she concentrates on these floral compositions, her reputation as a serious painter begins to wane.

Technique and Artistic Style

Modernism finds a distinct Australian exponent in Rehfisch’s rhythmic and structured compositions. Her approach leans heavily into post-impressionist principles, favoring simple forms over intricate detail. She builds her canvases through a bold yet harmonious use of colour, often stripping subjects down to their essential geometric qualities. This structural discipline creates a sense of order, even when the subject matter remains domestic or mundane.

In her still lifes, the pictorial plane often flattens. Take Oranges and lemons, an oil on canvas made in London about 1934. The composition is carefully constructed, utilizing a strict palette of white and eggshell hues for the vessels. A diamond-shaped arrangement of objects—a plate, a bowl, and a modernist jug—leaves the corners of the canvas empty, accentuating the flatness of the work. Scattered fruit and stamped envelopes introduce specific points of colour into this precise tonal scale.

Her technical versatility extends to unconventional supports. She has applied oil to hessian, as seen in her portrait of George Duncan, maintaining a post-impressionist style through the texture of the fabric. Whether working on canvas or hessian, the focus remains on the interplay of light and the reduction of objects to their most basic, impactful shapes.

Later Years and Death

The stability of her later life fractures in 1974. George Duncan, her husband and longtime companion, dies of cancer. The loss leaves her inconsolable. The void left by his death coincides with a physical decline; her eyesight begins to deteriorate, making the precision required for her painting increasingly difficult to maintain. Depression settles in alongside this loss of vision.

The end comes quickly after. In 1975, less than a year after George's passing, she commits suicide by swallowing poison. She dies in Pymble, leaving behind a body of work that spans the evolution of Australian modernism.

Where to See the Works Today

The physical remains of Rehfisch's career reside in several major Australian institutions. Her prints are held within the National Gallery of Australia. The Art Gallery of New South Wales also maintains works from her oeuvre. These collections preserve the visual record of her development from a student of the Royal Art Society to a recognized figure in Australian modernism.

Further examples of her output are located in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. In Western Australia, her presence is felt at the University of Western Australia, where the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery holds her work. These various repositories ensure her contribution to the country's art history remains accessible to researchers and the public.