I don’t remember when I first saw Norman Lindsay’s work. I think it was perhaps in High School. I remember a painting in a gallery; one of his typical oils showing a nude woman and greek mythical elements. It had a strikingly fantastic quality which appealed to me. Of course at the time I wouldn’t have remembered it or even noted his name, and I certainly wouldn’t have known he was the same guy who wrote The Magic Pudding.
For the non-Australians out there, Norman Lindsay is one of our most famous artists. For about fifty years, he produced an absolutely staggering amount of work in many different fields including watercolours, oils, etchings, sculptures, pen and ink drawings and even model boats. He also wrote several novels and an extremely popular childrens book. By far the most popular topic of his work was nude women, especially coupled with imagery from greek myth.
Because of the nudity, his work was vilified by critics and much of his work was banned from display or sale. He remains controversial and is currently not exhibited in any major Australian gallery. This is a true shame for he was unquestionably a man of enormous drive and talent, and a truly unique Australian artist.
Many years ago I became aware of the Norman Lindsay Gallery in a town called Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains. I wanted to visit it, and had intended to do just that during my past two trips. As it turns out that never happened, but yesterday Adam and I made the trip, which turned out to be much easier than either of us had expected.
The gallery is inside the house in which he lived for many years up to his death. It was here he created much of his work, and his studio and etching studio are still on display. The grounds are full of sculptures he made out of concrete, and even the house itself shows evidence of his own creation. For instance he hand made all the columns around the verandah, in addition to much of the detailing inside the building.
Many of his works were on display, and we were treated to a wonderful tour by one of the ladies who works at the gallery. I was particularly pleased that – in addition to the permanent displays – an exhibit focusing on his work containing mythical creatures was on display. As a fan of fantasy games and books, it was remarkable to see his depictions of such things as mermaids, harpies and centaurs – all painted over 50 years ago and incredibly detailed and imaginitive and just beautiful.
One painting in particular, showing mermaids swimming amidst the ruins of a sunken Atlantis, was just breathtaking. If I had a few hundred thousand dollars, I’d love to buy one of his originals and display it on my wall 🙂
Happily the gift store was well stocked, and I was finally able to buy some nice prints of various of his works. They also had original etchings for sale, and two original (tiny) hand-drawn sketches. The prices of such items were well, well beyond my meagre means (one etching was A$29,000), and one can only wonder at the total value of his body of work nowadays, since he painted over 5000 oils of just one of his models.
Ironic, and somewhat pleasing, given the way he was treated when he lived.
If you’re ever in the area I highly recommend the gallery. Both Adam and I loved it, and it was far better (and far more complete) than I ever expected.
