Lionel Arthur Lindsay (1874 - 1961)

Artist Info

"Painter, graphic artist, writer and critic. The most influential art

writer of his time he was the chief protagonist for the cause of the

Australian black - and- white school and of the painting of 'the Middle

Period'. Trustee of the Art Gallery of N.S.W., 1918 - 29, and 1934 - 49.

Brother of Percy, Norman, Daryl and Ruby Lindsay,

STUDIES : Melbourne,N.G.V.School.He started his working life at the age of

15 as pupil - assistant at the Melbourne Observatory, 1889 - 92. On

leaving the Observatory he worked as a freelance artist and journalist

and contributed black - and - white drawings to the Sydney Bulletin

and othe rmagazines. He made the first of several visits to Spain in

1902 and learned to speak Spanish fluently. An inveterate traveller

and talker, he wrote for the Sydney Evening News, 1903 - 26, and

travelled in Europe, North Africa and India. By 1927 the basis of his

reputation was established and he had become widely known for his

watercolours and etchings, and particularly for his woodcuts of

Australian animals and birds. An exhbn of his work, held at

Colnaghi's, London, in 1927, yielded £2,500 in sales. A keen admirer'

of the work of Charles Keene, Adolf Menzel and Daniel Vierge, his

writings on black - and - white art came to mean in Australia what the

writings of Joseph Pennell meant in England and America. As an art

critic he was often inconsistent but his views were always expressed

energetically, and, when he felt strongly on a particular subject, with

great vehemence. When art critic, briefly, for the Melbourne Herald,

1935, he launched a spirited attack on the teaching methods at the

Melbourne National Gallery School, which he called 'the school of

smudge'. He gave strong critical support to the Melbourne modern

painters exhibiting in the 1935 exhbn of the Twenty Melbourne

Painters. Also, as a trusteeoftheArtGalleryofN.S.W.,hewarmly

supportedtheawardofthe1943ArchibaldPrizetoWilliamDobeJI.

Ontheotherhand,theviewsexpressedinhispolemicalpamphlet,

AddledArt(1943),showedhimasabitterantagonistoftheSchoolof Parisandeverythingwhichtheterm'modernart'connoted,andhis

ownpaintinganddrawing,whichwasrigidlyconventionalandoften

colourless,supportedthisattitude.Hemademanygiftsofetchings

anddrawingstopubliccollections.HisgifttoToowoomba,Qld,

resultedinthefoundationoftheLionelLindsayGalleryandLibrary,

Toowoomba,1959.AWARDS:N.S.W.SocietyofArtists'medal,1937;

knighthoodconferred1941.REP:Acompletesetofhiswoodcutsisin

theprintcollectionsoftheBritishMuseum;allStateandmany

regionalgalleries.(LionelLindsay,AConsiderationoftheWorkof

ErnestMoffitt,AtlasPress,Melbourne,1899;ConradMartens:The

ManandhisArt,Angus&Robertson,Sydney,1943;articlesinA .

A.,Mar.1928,Aug.1937;LionelLindsay:EtchingsinSpain,Ure

Smith,Sydney,1949.Forewordsandtexttomanyofthecollected

worksofNormanLindsay'spen-drawings.)