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Lot Essay
The early years of Norman Lindsay's artistic career were taken up mainly with his pursuits in the arenas of watercolour, etching and drawing. Indeed it was not until he had entered his fifties that he began seriously painting in oils, a medium he was to come to love and use extensively right up until his death at the age of ninety.
Norman Lindsay had an address book filled with the names of over one hundred and fifty models. Works which were often titled with the model's name were not intended to be portraits of the sitters as such, but general representations of the nude and femininity. Lin Bloomfield commented that:
"When he was unable to use live models he relied on hundreds of pencil sketches which he had, as a basis for the muscular co-ordination of the nude and from as many angles as possibleOne of the advantages that oil had over other mediums for him was that he was better able to catch flesh tones. To any painter of nudes, this must be one of the main goals, and there is no doubt that in his better paintings he succeeded admirably
There was a strong element of the theatrical in the psyche of Norman Lindsay and this was more evident in his oils than in any other medium. Lavish use of colour and intricate painting of different materials are common to many of his oilsat last his imagination was to have full-reign in technicolour as it were(these) paintings pulsate with life and vitality; they demand attention - they cannot be ignored." (L Bloomfield, The World of Norman Lindsay, Sydney. 1979, p. 65)
Norman Lindsay had an address book filled with the names of over one hundred and fifty models. Works which were often titled with the model's name were not intended to be portraits of the sitters as such, but general representations of the nude and femininity. Lin Bloomfield commented that:
"When he was unable to use live models he relied on hundreds of pencil sketches which he had, as a basis for the muscular co-ordination of the nude and from as many angles as possibleOne of the advantages that oil had over other mediums for him was that he was better able to catch flesh tones. To any painter of nudes, this must be one of the main goals, and there is no doubt that in his better paintings he succeeded admirably
There was a strong element of the theatrical in the psyche of Norman Lindsay and this was more evident in his oils than in any other medium. Lavish use of colour and intricate painting of different materials are common to many of his oilsat last his imagination was to have full-reign in technicolour as it were(these) paintings pulsate with life and vitality; they demand attention - they cannot be ignored." (L Bloomfield, The World of Norman Lindsay, Sydney. 1979, p. 65)