Explore Lionel’s Place

Sir Lionel Lindsay was one of Australia’s best graphic artists of the twentieth century. The excellence of his wood engravings and etchings meant that by 1927 he was hailed as the most internationally successful printmaker of all time. Born in Creswick, Victoria in 1874, Lionel lived and worked across Australia, travelled widely internationally, and settled in his last home in Wahroonga, NSW. He died in Hornsby hospital, NSW in 1961 aged 86.

Maitland Regional Art Gallery is proud to be the custodians of the extensive collection of Lionel Lindsay etchings, wood engravings, watercolours and books donated to the Gallery’s Collection in 2016 by Max and Nola Tegel.

Photograph of Lionel Lindsay by Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953)
The Etcher, 2, 1925
Silver gelatin print
13.4 x 10.3 cm
National Library of Australia Collection, (Bib 1071869)

Lionel Lindsay was the third of ten children, five of whom became professional artists. Lionel’s younger brother, Norman Lindsay (1879–1969), gained the highest profile, well known for his paintings of voluptuous nudes and fantasist scenes. The two brothers were very close and Lionel supported Norman’s artistic career, including teaching Norman how to create etchings. This portrait of Norman was made by Lionel for the frontispiece of Norman’s book of pen drawings. It was the last portrait he made of his brother before their relationship was irreparably damaged – culminating with a letter from Norman in which he disowned Lionel as a brother.

Norman Lindsay, 1918
Drypoint etching
20.5 x 14.5cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Henry Lawson (1867–1922) was an Australian author of short stories and bush ballads. His book Romance of the Swag was illustrated with wood engravings by Lionel Lindsay. Lionel drew Lawson often and enjoyed having him sit for him. This was at a time near the end of Lawson’s life, when his hearing was poor, a suitable affliction for an artist’s sitter as he was less likely to be distracted and remained still and focussed. In his autobiography ‘Comedy of Life’ Lionel wrote of Lawson: “I have never seen finer eyes. They were dark and soft, yet lit with a brilliant spark when animated.”

Henry Lawson, 1922
Wood engraving
23.9 x 15.4cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Wood engraving is a type of relief printing and involves inscribing, with sharp engraving tools, into the cross-grain of a dense piece of wood. When printed onto paper the impression from the woodblock leaves white lines where the ink has not penetrated.

Lionel Lindsay’s wood engravings depict more intimate subject matter than the scenes in his etchings. This medium imposed the constraints of forethought and consideration of the line about to be cut, to ensure that he ‘cut a line with meaning’ knowing that one mistake could ruin the block. His drawing expertise enabled him to engrave directly onto the woodblock, referring to the still life object, instead of drawing an outline sketch on the wood. This large scale wood engraving, featuring souvenirs from Lionel’s earlier visits to Spain, exemplifies his mastery of the medium as can be seen in his fine detailing of the iron lacework and background patterns. When Lionel made this work in 1936, Spain was a place of turmoil and division, the Spanish civil war had begun and he would have known that it was unlikely that he would be returning to his beloved Spain.

Spanish Still Life, 1936
Wood engraving
31.4 x 19.9cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

This work was created late in Lionel Lindsay’s life when wood engraving would have been difficult for the artist due to his failing eyesight – even with the use of a magnifying glass which he often used when carving his wood engravings. He did continue working, despite the ailments of old age; in fact he was still working in 1959 at age 85, when he cut and printed the wood engravings for his book ‘Discobolus and other verse’.

Magnolias, 1950
Wood engraving
18 x 12.9cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

In all his wood engravings Lionel Lindsay paid great attention to detail and technique, however it was in his depictions of birds that we can see his skill, not only in illustration, but also in relating a particular character and expression to his subjects. His son Peter recalled that Lionel was ‘mad about birds. He would lie out on the ground on [their] property with field glasses, watching the birds. He went to the zoo…he would photograph and draw.’ Lionel would make notes on the movement of the body and particular characteristics of the bird, only referring to stuffed specimens for close study of their feathers. In his engravings Lionel would ‘try to get the character of the bird in a typical attitude – but in reality it is a motive for design’.  Within this composition we can also see the influence of the Japanese design aesthetic on Lionel’s work, with the inclusion of an oriental style floral decoration in the top right.

The Night Heron, 1935
Wood engraving
13.4 x 13.4cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Lionel Lindsay had a deep adoration of Spain and depicted many scenes with a romanticism of times past in his etchings. Etching is a type of intaglio printing in which an image is incised into a metal plate. The plate is then dipped in acid and the acid bitten line then holds the ink. The resulting impression on paper creates a print with black lines from the incised ink-filled line, which is opposite to a relief print. The print effects can be varied by the use of different grounds of waxes and resins used in the etching process and Lionel experimented with many different combinations of grounds and etching techniques.

This nostalgic representation of Cordova has been enhanced by using a spirit aquatint technique – in which a resin, dissolved in alcohol, is poured across the plate surface before the design is inscribed onto the plate. The plate is then placed in acid which ‘bites’ into the plate where the lines were inscribed. The printed result of an aquatint is areas of continuous tone, much like an ink wash.

The house on the wall, Cordova, 1923
Spirit aquatint
18.5 x 15.7cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Drypoint etching is an intaglio printing technique, in which lines are scratched into a metal plate with a sharp tool. The incised line and the burr left along the edges of the incised line hold the ink which then print as a soft but rich, black line, much like a pencil drawing.

Jerez de los Caballeros is a town in south-western Spain. Lionel Lindsay wrote that Jerez De Los Caballeros was among his favourite places on the whole Spanish peninsula. To achieve this high perspective view of the church and town below Lionel climbed through a broken window in the neighbouring tower and up to ‘the only place to draw from [which] was a precipitous edge used as a privy with the danger of the squatter falling 80 feet to an odiferous doom.’

Jerez De Los Caballeros, Estremadura, Spain, 1928
Drypoint etching
30.2 x 32.6cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Although Lionel Lindsay was disdainful of the Church and organised religion he was enamoured with religious architecture. Burgos had much to enthral Lionel and he made many etchings of the town including the convent of Huelgas, the Constables Chapel and the Burgos Cathedral. The cathedral is regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish Gothic architecture and was often referred to as ‘the work of angels’. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In this etching Lionel has detailed the intricate carvings of saints above the entry doors, which he contrasts with the figures of beggars in the foreground. The wide, steep staircase balances the composition and creates a direct relationship between the religious grandeur and the immediate poverty on its steps.

The Great Doorway, Burgos, 1931
Etching
30 x 21.3cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

Lionel Lindsay created many etchings of historic Sydney streets. David Scott Mitchell (1836 –1907) was a collector of Australian books, and founder and benefactor of The Mitchell Library in Sydney. In this work Lionel records the childhood home of this major benefactor to the State Library of NSW, an institution that now happens to hold a large collection of Lionel Lindsay works, gifted to the library by Lionel’s patron, Sir William Dixson (1870-1952).

The Birthplace of David Scott Mitchell, Cumberland Street, Sydney
(The Mitchell’s House), 1913
Etching
13.3 x 9.7cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

The Pool is the earliest work by Lionel Lindsay in the Maitland Regional Art Gallery Collection. It is one of six etchings he created to illustrate a collection of poems in the book ‘The Troubled Pool and other poems’ by J. Griffyth Fairfax, a member of the Australian newspaper dynasty. This symbolist subject matter appealed to Lionel and softer effects that resulted by using of a soft ground on the etching plate lent well to the moody, symbolic scene.

The Pool, 1910
Etching and softground
12 x 8cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia

In this scene we see a small boat floating in the shadows of dark looming cypresses in the background. This wood engraving illustrates Lionel Lindsay’s musings in later life about death. He described this image as ‘my oblate to Charon’, Charon being the ferryman of the dead. The dark cypresses replicate those in a famous painting by the Symbolist Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin, ‘Isle of the Dead’, 1880.

Lethe Wharf, 1938
Wood engraving
32.4 x 17.3cm
© the Estate of Lionel Lindsay, by permission National Library of Australia