Norman Alfred William Lindsay (22 February 1879 – 21 November 1969) was an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n
artistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
,
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
,
writerA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
,
editorial cartoonistAn editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary....
,
scale modelA scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
er, and
boxerBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
. He was born in
Creswick, VictoriaCreswick is a town in west-central Victoria, Australia. It is located 18 kilometres north of Ballarat and 129 km northwest of Melbourne, in Shire of Hepburn. It is 430 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census, Creswick had a population of 2,485...
.
Lindsay was the son of Anglo-Irish surgeon Robert Charles William Alexander Lindsay and Jane Elizabeth Lindsay from Creswick. The fifth of ten children, he was the brother of
Percy LindsayPercival Charles Lindsay was an Australian landscape painter, illustrator and cartoonist, born in Creswick, Victoria. Percy was the first child born to Jane Lindsay and Dr Robert Charles Lindsay...
(1870–1952),
Lionel LindsaySir Lionel Arthur Lindsay was an Australian artist and brother of artist and illustrator Norman Lindsay.-Early life:...
(1874–1961),
Ruby LindsayRuby Lindsay was an Australian illustrator and painter, sister of Norman Lindsay and Percy Lindsay.Lindsay was born in Creswick, Victoria, the seventh child and second daughter of Robert and Jane Lindsay, and lived in Melbourne from the age of 16 with her brother Percy while studying at the...
(1885–1919), and
Daryl LindsaySir Ernest Daryl Lindsay was an Australian artist and member of the creative Lindsay family.-Early life:...
(1889–1976).
Personal life
Lindsay married Catherine (Kate) Agatha Parkinson, in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 23 May 1900. Their son
JackRobert Leeson Jack Lindsay was an Australian-born writer, who from 1926 lived in the United Kingdom, initially in Essex. He was born in Melbourne, but spent his formative years in Brisbane...
was born in Melbourne on 20 October 1900, followed by Raymond in 1903 and
PhilipPhilip Lindsay was an Australian writer, who mostly wrote historical novels. He was the son of Norman Lindsay, an Australian artist. He moved to England in the 1930s and most of his novels were written there...
in 1906. They divorced in 1918. Philip died in 1958 and Raymond in 1960. In the Lindsay tradition, Jack became a prolific publisher, writer, translator and activist.
Rose Soady
Rose Soady began modelling for Lindsay in 1920. She became his second wife, his most recognizable model, his business manager, and the printer for most of his etchings. By the time he left for London in 1909, Rose supplanted his wife and joined him there in 1910.
Lindsay married Soady on 14 January 1920. Their children, Janet and Helen (Honey), were born in 1920 and 1922 respectively. Jane died in 1999. Honey remained in the U.S. after visiting with her mother to cache her father's works at the beginning of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and Jane acquired the printmaking studio on the Faulconbridge property in 1949 and build a house around it. Honey married twice, the first marriage was to Bruce Glad, the second to Richard Siau. Jane later married Honey's first husband, Bruce Glad.
Works
Lindsay is widely regarded as one of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's greatest artists, producing a vast body of work in different media, including pen drawing,
etchingEtching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
, watercolour,
oilOil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
and
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s in
concreteConcrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
.
A large body of his work is housed in his former home at
Faulconbridge, New South WalesFaulconbridge is a village located in the Blue Mountains 77 km west of Sydney, New South Wales and is 450 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census, Faulconbridge had a population of 4,014 people.-History and Description:...
, now the
Norman Lindsay Gallery and MuseumThe Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum is based in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains, Australia. The property is a stone cottage on a 42 acre block of land which was originally owned by the Australian artist and writer Norman Lindsay...
, and many works reside in private and corporate collections. His art continues to climb in value today. In 2002, a record price was attained for his oil painting
Spring's Innocence, which sold to the
National Gallery of VictoriaThe National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
for A$333,900.
Loss
His frank and sumptuous nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Soady took sixteen crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the war. Unfortunately, they were discovered when the train they were on caught fire and were impounded and subsequently
burnedBook burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
as
pornographyPornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
by American officials. Soady's older brother Lionel remembers Lindsay's reaction: "Don't worry, I'll do more."
Output
Lindsay's creative output was vast, his energy enormous. Several eyewitness accounts tell of his working practices in the 1920s. He would wake early and produce a watercolour before breakfast, then by mid-morning he would be in his etching studio where he would work until late afternoon. He would work on a concrete sculpture in the garden during the afternoon and in the evening write a new chapter for whatever novel he was working on at the time.
As a break, he would work on a model ship some days. He was highly inventive, melting down the lead casings of oil paint tubes to use for the figures on his model ships, made a large easel using a door, carved and decorated furniture, designed and built chairs, created garden planters, roman columns and built his own additions to the Faulconbridge property.
Career
In 1895, Lindsay moved to Melbourne to work on a local magazine with his older brother Lionel. His Melbourne experiences are described in
Rooms and Houses.
In 1901, he and Lionel joined the staff of the
Sydney BulletinThe Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
, a weekly newspaper, magazine and review. His association there would last fifty years.
Lindsay wrote the children's classic
The Magic PuddingThe Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is an Australian children's book written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay. It is a comic fantasy, and a classic of Australian children's literature....
published in 1918 and created a scandal when his novel
Redheap (supposedly based on his hometown, Creswick) was banned due to
censorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
laws. Many of his novels have a frankness and vitality that matches his art.
Lindsay also worked as an editorial cartoonist, notable for often illustrating the racist and right-wing political leanings that dominated
The Bulletin at that time; the "
Red MenaceDurrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
" and "
Yellow PerilYellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
" were popular themes in his cartoons. These attitudes occasionally spilled over into his other work, and modern editions of
The Magic Pudding often omit one couplet in which "you unmitigated Jew" is used as an insult.
Lindsay was associated with a number of poets, such as
Kenneth SlessorKenneth Adolf Slessor OBE was an Australian poet and journalist. He was one of Australia's leading poets, notable particularly for the absorption of modernist influences into Australian poetry. The Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry is named after him.-Life:Slessor was born Kenneth Adolphe...
,
Francis WebbFrancis Webb may refer to:* Francis Webb , British* Francis Webb , Australian-See also:*Francis Webb Sheilds, Australian engineer*Frances Webb, British noblewoman...
and
Hugh McCraeHugh Raymond McCrae was an Australian writer.McCrae was born in Melbourne, the son of the Australian author George Gordon McCrae. He was originally articled to an architect, but later took upon writing and acting, settling eventually in Sydney and Camden...
, influencing them in part through a philosophical system outlined in his book
Creative Effort. He also illustrated the cover for the seminal
Henry LawsonHenry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
book,
While the Billy Boils. Lindsay's son,
Jack LindsayRobert Leeson Jack Lindsay was an Australian-born writer, who from 1926 lived in the United Kingdom, initially in Essex. He was born in Melbourne, but spent his formative years in Brisbane...
, emigrated to England, where he set up Fanfrolico Press, which issued works illustrated by Lindsay.
Lindsay influenced more than a few artists, notably the illustrators
Roy Krenkel and
Frank FrazettaFrank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...
; he was also good friends with
Ernest MoffittErnest Edward Moffitt was an Australian artist.- Life :Moffitt was born in Bendigo, Victoria the son of John Thomas Lowry Moffitt, draper, and his wife Mary Emily, née Rogers. He was educated at All Saints school, St. Kilda, Melbourne...
.
Europe
Lindsay travelled to Europe in 1909, Rose followed later. In Naples he began 100 pen-and-ink illustrations for
Petronius'Gaius Petronius or Publius Petronius was the 2nd and then 4th prefect of Roman Aegyptus. He led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the kingdom of Meroe, whose queen Imanarenat had previously attacked Roman Egypt. Failing to acquire permanent gains, he razed the city of Napata 22 BC...
SatyriconSatyricon is a Latin work of fiction in a mixture of prose and poetry. It is believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as a certain Titus Petronius...
. Visits to the then
South Kensington MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
where he made sketches of model ships in the Museum's collection stimulated a lifelong interest in ship models. The Lindsays returned to Australia in 1911.
Screen versions of Lindsay's work
Film
The first major screen adaptation of Lindsay's literary works was the
(1969)The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
Anglo-Australian co-production
Age of Consent; adapted from Lindsay's 1935 novel, it was the last feature film directed by
Michael PowellMichael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
. In
(1994)1994 was a significant year in film.The top grosser worldwide was The Lion King, which to date stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated film of all time...
Sam NeillNigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
played a fictionalised version of Lindsay in
John DuiganJohn Duigan, is an Australian film director.Duigan emigrated to Australia in 1961, having been born to an Australian father...
's
SirensSirens is a 1993 film, written and directed by John Duigan, and set in Australia between the two World Wars.Sirens, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bitter Moon—all released in the U.S...
, set and filmed primarily at Lindsay's Faulconbridge home. The film is also notable as the movie debut of Australian
supermodelThe term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
Elle MacPhersonElle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...
.
Television
In 1972 five novels were adapted for TV as part of the
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's Norman Lindsay festival. These were
Halfway to Nowhere (adapted by
Cliff GreenCliff Green is an Australian screen writer, whose best known work is Picnic at Hanging Rock .He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2009...
), "Redheap" (adapted by Eleanor Witcombe),
A Curate in Bohemia (adapted by Michael Boddy),
The Cousin from Fiji (adapted by
Barbara VernonBarbara Vernon PhD is an Australian birth activist who lobbies government for improved provision of maternity services, particularly the expert use of midwives. She was the Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives from 2002 to 2010....
) and
Dust or Polish (adapted by
Peter KennaPeter Joseph Kenna was an Australian playwright, radio actor and screenwriter.Born in Balmain, New South Wales, Kenna left school at fourteen and took up various jobs. He started working in the theatre by participating in concert parties at the camps in Sydney during World War II...
).
Searches of the ABC's
TARA Online television database and the collection database of the
National Film & Sound Archive (conducted 4 Mar. 2009) failed to return any results for these programs. Regrettably, many videotaped ABC programs, series (e.g.
Certain WomenCertain Women was an Australian television soap opera created by prominent Australian TV dramatist Tony Morphett and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1973 and 1976....
) and program segments from the late 1960s and early 1970s were subsequently erased as part of an ill-considered economy drive. Although the recent closure of ABC Sydney's Gore Hill studios uncovered considerable quantities of film and video footage long thought to have been lost (e.g. the complete
The Aunty Jack ShowThe Aunty Jack Show was a Logie Award–winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day....
), the absence of any reference on the TARA or NFSA databases and the paucity of citations elsewhere (e.g. IMdb) suggest that the master recordings of these programs may no longer exist. Unfortunately, the first broadcasts of these programs also predated the advent of affordable domestic videocassette recorders in Australia (which did not come into widespread household use until the late 1970s) so it fairly unlikely that any domestically recorded off-air copies exist.
Novels
- A Curate in Bohemia 1913
- Redheap 1930 (published in the U.S. as Every Mother's Son)
- Miracles by Arrangement 1932 (published in the U.S. as Mr. Gresham and Olympus)
- Saturdee 1933
- Pan in the Parlour 1933
- The Cautious Amorist 1934 (first published in the U.S. in 1932)
- Age of Consent 1935
- The Cousin from Fiji 1945
- Halfway to Anywhere 1947
- Dust or Polish? 1950
Poetry book
- illustrations in Francis Webb A Drum for Ben Boyd Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1948
Other
- Norman Lindsay: Pencil Drawings 1969, Angus & Robertson, Sydney
- Creative Effort: an essay in affirmation 1924
- The scribblings of an idle mind 1956
- Norman Lindsay's pen drawings 1974
Autobiographical
- Bohemians of the Bulletin 1965
- Rooms and Houses 1968
- My Mask (autobiography) 1970
See also
- Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum
The Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum is based in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains, Australia. The property is a stone cottage on a 42 acre block of land which was originally owned by the Australian artist and writer Norman Lindsay...
- Kenneth G. Ross
Kenneth Graham Ross is an Australian playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the 1978 stage play Breaker Morant, that was based on the life of Australian soldier Harry "Breaker" Morant....
: author of the musical play Norman Lindsay and his Push in Bohemia (1978)
- Visual arts of Australia
External links