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Lot Essay
All his life pirates and the sea fascinated Lindsay. A childhood illness confined him to the house but gave him the opportunity to feed an already fertile imagination by reading tales of adventure such as RM Ballyntyne's Coral Island and the works of Captain Marryatt. In 1896 he joined his brother Lionel in Melbourne, where they lived a hand to mouth bohemian existence as illustrators. In a shack off Little Bourke Street they created a pirate's den, furnishing it with barrels and suitable paraphanalia. Here they drank rum and made an attempt at writing a pirate novel which was soon abandoned. More successful was his artistic experimentation with etching. In 1897 he completed his first etching titled (Pirates Captives). The influence of Howard Pyle, the 19th century illustrator is clear in his earliest 'pirate" works, a watercolour On The Spanish Main published in The Lone Hand 1907
In a letter to John Hetherington in 1960 Lindsay wrote '... scoundrelism on the high seas makes a richly coloured patchThe pirate is a colourful ruffian and I have frequently got good subjects...' Over the years he returned again and again to this favourite theme producing numerous compositions and portraits in oil, watercolour and etching.
In Buccaneers' Reward the central figure is a luminous fair creature protected from the Caribbean sun by a parasol. She accepts homage with a confident poise and obviously no fear of being carried off by the buccaneer. She embodies Lindsay's belief in the 'feminine dominant' - the civilising force of Life. Her attendants seem as pleased to engage in pleasure as do the crew. The composition, and indeed the title, is similar to the 1924 watercolour (see L Bloomfield, Norman Lindsay Watercolours 1897-1969, Bungendore, 2003, p.93). By the mid 1940s Lindsay was sufficiently confident in his mastery of oil painting to have produced highly coloured and robust compositions.
This painting is one of a series that Lindsay completed over several years to hang in the drawing room at Springwood. The room, furnished with deep sofas and gold wallpaper, had niches made in the walls to hang large and important paintings framed with the same laurel-leaf design moulding. Another painting, which also hung in the room, Urs Graf Entertains shows the same enjoyment of both medium and subject.
We are grateful to Helen Glad for providing this catalogue entry
In a letter to John Hetherington in 1960 Lindsay wrote '... scoundrelism on the high seas makes a richly coloured patchThe pirate is a colourful ruffian and I have frequently got good subjects...' Over the years he returned again and again to this favourite theme producing numerous compositions and portraits in oil, watercolour and etching.
In Buccaneers' Reward the central figure is a luminous fair creature protected from the Caribbean sun by a parasol. She accepts homage with a confident poise and obviously no fear of being carried off by the buccaneer. She embodies Lindsay's belief in the 'feminine dominant' - the civilising force of Life. Her attendants seem as pleased to engage in pleasure as do the crew. The composition, and indeed the title, is similar to the 1924 watercolour (see L Bloomfield, Norman Lindsay Watercolours 1897-1969, Bungendore, 2003, p.93). By the mid 1940s Lindsay was sufficiently confident in his mastery of oil painting to have produced highly coloured and robust compositions.
This painting is one of a series that Lindsay completed over several years to hang in the drawing room at Springwood. The room, furnished with deep sofas and gold wallpaper, had niches made in the walls to hang large and important paintings framed with the same laurel-leaf design moulding. Another painting, which also hung in the room, Urs Graf Entertains shows the same enjoyment of both medium and subject.
We are grateful to Helen Glad for providing this catalogue entry