Rose Lindsay (née Soady) (1885-1978), artist's model, posed for Sydney Long, Antonio Dattilo Rubbo and Fred Leist before she met Norman Lindsay in 1902. By 1903 she was installed in his Rowe Street studio rooms as his model and lover, and they later married. Rose continued as Lindsay's principal model, becoming possibly the most frequently painted woman in the history of Australian art. She wrote two books on her life, Ma and Pa: My Childhood Memories (1963) and Model Wife: my life with Norman Lindsay (1967). She is photographed standing in front of a painting for which she had posed.
Anthony Browell has been a professional photographer intermittently since 1970. In 1976 he started the workshop at the Australian Centre for Photography.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
© Anthony Browell
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Anthony Browell reminisces about meeting Rose Lindsay, the wife of Australian artist Norman Lindsay.
Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
