Notable People of Collingwood

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Marjorie Woolcock

1898 - 1998

Sculptor, painter, printmaker

Still Life by Marjorie

Born into a well-known Clifton Hill family in 1898, Marjorie lived in Gold Street Clifton Hill for over 30 years, and developed an artistic career, focusing initially on sculpture but mainly making her name with painting and printmaking. Her father was Frederick Woolcock, son of butchering magnate John Woolcock. Her mother was Robena Black, from Abbotsford. Frederick and Robena were married in Gold Street by Presbyterian minister Daniel McKenzie whose manse was a few doors away from their home. Marjorie was their first child, born at her grandparents’ house in Ivanhoe, and living at 211 Gold St and 217 Gold Street until the early 1930s.

The family expanded with the birth of Violet in 1900, John Douglas in 1902, Phyllis in 1904, Doris in 1906 (who sadly died in 1908), and finally Frederick Dudley, in 1909. The family was comfortably off, living in a large house facing the lovely Darling Gardens, with servants to help with cooking and housework, and with the social benefit of the numerous aunts, uncles and cousins of the extended Woolcock family living nearby. At least one uncle, several cousins, and brother Frederick Dudley attended Scotch College in Eastern Hill.

The girls appear to have led the typical early twentieth century childhood of their class and sex, supported by their parents through music lessons, private school education, and tertiary education. Marjorie attended Westleigh school run by the Misses Westgarth in North Fitzroy, where she was dux of her class in 1906; her sister Violet also went to Westleigh school for at least part of her schooling, while Phyllis attended Gold Street State School. All three girls continued their education at Presbyterian Ladies College. There Marjorie won the senior Singing Scholarship and thrilled the audience with her solo rendering of Beloved, it is Morn! at the school speech and prizegiving night in 1915. Marjorie and Violet went on to be active members of the PLC Old Collegians Club, and played together at a range of events: Marjorie was an accomplished pianist and Violet a noted violinist.

Marjorie attended the Workingmen’s College, as RMIT was then known, and was doing an advanced course in Modelling the Human Figure from a Cast in 1931. She also studied at the George Bell School. A foundation member of the Melbourne Contemporary Artists Group, she was also a member of the Victorian Artists Society and the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.

In 1931 she was singled out for praise by critic Percy Leason in what was possibly her first exhibition of a painting: The Green Vase, at the Victorian Artists Society. At the 1932 annual exhibition of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters she showed a painting as well as sculpture and modelling along with Ola Cohn.

Basil Burdett, The Herald art critic, who headed his 1936 review ‘Talent and Mediocrity in Women Painters' Show” rated Marjorie in the former category: ‘One of the most thoughtful things in the show is Marjorie Woolcock's "Gourd and Pot” a fine study in formal relations, and an excellent bit of color as well. Her "Still Life" is also good.’

In 1939 John Harcourt wrote:

At the annual exhibition of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters in the Atheneum Gallery one of the happiest exhibits is a piece of modernist work "Flight” by Marjorie Woolcock, a canvas which owes little to nature but creates beauty by strength of design and colour and is strangely emotionally evocative.

In 1946 Marjorie exhibited in a two-woman show with Jessie Mackintosh, reviewed by The Sun critic:

Nor does Marjorie Woolcock lack variety as although all her works are in oils, she is passionately interested in different modes of thought expression, from the naturalistic to the most abstract. There are many good works shown of which Kalorama, Valley, Airey's Inlet and a dozen others are outstanding. The attention given to design, especially in depth, has resulted in many convincing examples such as Spatial Abstract and Rose Study. Of special note are the excellent monotypes.

Early in the 1930s the family, with the exception of John who had married a Miss Gay in 1928 and moved to Corryong, relocated from Gold Street to the area of Box Hill North then known as Mont Albert. Marjorie shared a city studio in the St James Building with three other artists, but the family group remained cohesive: when Frederick Dudley married in 1940 his wife and infant child remained in the family home during his war service, before moving—into the house next door! The girls remained but the family gradually disintegrated: Uncle Anthony, Robena's brother, who had come to live with them, died in 1948, Robena died in 1954, followed by Violet’s unexpected death at the age of 60, then Frederick senior in 1963. The two remaining sisters would continue to live together until their deaths in their late nineties. Phyllis, a teacher, was also musical, and had tried her hand at prints and watercolours. The pair moved to Canterbury, then Balwyn, and finally (by 1991) resided at Mayflower Aged Care facility in Brighton. Marjorie was suffering from senile dementia towards the end of her life; Phyllis outlived her by two years.

While Marjorie was prolific and her works regularly drew favourable commentary as she exhibited during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, she has not remained a household name in the way of some of her contemporaries and co-exhibitors. However, works including linocuts and monotypes are held by Geelong Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Ballarat, and National Gallery of Australia. The majority of her works, especially the oil paintings, are in private hands. They continue to turn up regularly at auction houses, selling for modest but respectable prices. One small mystery remains: why a number of websites devoted to Australian artists indicate her death as 1965, when in fact she lived just months short of her century, dying in 1998.