Portrait of Edith

In his autobiography Sage Tea, Toss Woollaston recorded that in the early years of his marriage ‘I drew and drew Edith in the evenings, mostly asleep in her chair after the rigours of our primitive days. It didn’t matter that she was asleep, I had no concern with the animation of expression that requires wakefulness, wanted to paint no smiles or flashing looks…’

Woollaston first met Edith Alexander in Dunedin in 1932. He renewed his acquaintance on a return visit and they married in August 1936. Trained as a painter, prior to their marriage Edith worked at Otago Medical School as official artist to the Bacteriological Department. (Intimate Portraits, 2005)

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