The lunches at Margaret Olley’s Paddington terrace were legendary. Amid the bench tops overflowing with paint tubes, brushes, turpentine and still life objects, the Australian artist would conjure up “the most amazing meals from her teeny cave-like” kitchen, Brisbane art dealer Philip Bacon recalls, and upbraid her longsuffering housekeeper Poppy whenever she attempted to restore order.
“None of us knew why Poppy was there – because she certainly wasn’t allowed to clean,” Bacon recalls. “If Poppy touched anything, Margaret would remonstrate indignantly: ‘Don’t touch that Poppy, that’s a painting.’”
