Take this rare opportunity to see historically and artistically significant Australian quilts. A Century of Quilts showcases an often-overlooked art form made almost exclusively by women.

 

The exhibition includes the National Gallery’s most requested work of art: The Rajah Quilt 1841. This quilt was made by women on the convict ship, HMS Rajah and was made a gift to the National Gallery of Australia by Les Hollings and the Australian Textiles Fund in 1989.

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The Rajah Quilt is one of Australia’s most important textiles, and a major focus of the National Gallery's textiles collection. While it is a work of great documentary importance in Australia’s history, it is also an extraordinary work of art; a product of beauty from the hands of many women who, while in the most abject circumstances, were able to work together to produce something of hope.

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Its story is one of hope and persistence, and has been a central subject of study into colonial life since its rediscovery in 1987. On its border is a stitched inscription which gives us an insight into the circumstances of the makers:

 

To the ladies of the convict ship committee, this quilt worked by the convicts of the ship Rajah during their voyage to van Dieman’s Land is presented as a testimony of the gratitude with which they remember their exertions for their welfare while in England and during their passage and also as a proof that they have not neglected the ladies kind admonitions of being industrious.' June 1841