The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.
Norman Lindsay (1879–1969), artist, cartoonist, and writer, came from a family that produced five artists: Percy, Lionel, Ruby and Daryl Lindsay were the others. Norman Lindsay left home when he was sixteen to live with Lionel in rented rooms in Melbourne. There, he drew illustrations and cartoons for the sensational rag the Hawklet and was a member of the bohemian artists’ club self-styled the Prehistoric Order of Cannibals. He spent the summer of 1897–98 living in the artists’ colony of Charterisville, making drawings jointly inspired by the Decameron and the neglected gardens around his cottage. In 1901 he moved north to make his permanent home in the Blue Mountains, where he worked for the Bulletin in an association that lasted almost to his death. Meanwhile, his first novel was published in 1913, and by the 1920s he was both proficient and prolific in pen and ink drawing, etching, woodcuts, painting and sculpture. A disciple of Nietzsche from early on, Lindsay loathed Christianity, and his art depicts Bohemianism and Arcadian pantheism admixed in a fantasy world. As early as 1904 his work was deemed blasphemous; in 1930 his novel Redheap was banned and the following year the police proceeded against an issue of Art in Australia that showcased his pictures. Seething with lush nudes, his paintings and prints remain popular with collectors, and his cheerfully violent The Magic Pudding (1918) is still regarded as an Australian children’s classic.
Max Dupain opened his own photographic studio in Sydney in 1934, and the following year his work was published for the first time in The Home. The photograph of Norman Lindsay – whom Dupain frankly admired – is from the first flurry of glamorous shots he took over the course of the 1930s.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Timothy Fairfax AC 2003
Tim Fairfax AC (54 portraits supported)
Drop into the Gallery for free creative activities inspired by the flora and fauna featured in the vibrant exhibition, Joan Ross: Those trees came back to me in my dreams.
Do we have a treat for the smaller humans in your life! Little Faces is for babies and toddlers (with their grown up) to play, sing and have fun discovering a portrait together.
Join us for Portrait Play these school holidays as we explore portraits and music. Come and meet the people that live on our walls, discover musical instruments hidden in the portraits and get creative on your journey through the galleries.
The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.
This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.
The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency