Norman Alfred Williams Lindsay (1879 - 1969)

Born 22 Feb 1879 in Creswick, Colony of Victoria

Ancestors

Husband of Kathleen Agatha (Parkinson) Lindsay — married 23 May 1900 (to Jun 1919) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Husband of Rose Soady — married 14 Jan 1920 (to 21 Nov 1969) in Burrowa, New South Wales, Australia

Died 21 Nov 1969 at age 90 in Springwood, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Norman Lindsay is Notable.

Norman was born in Creswick, in the gold mining region of Victoria, in 1879, to Robert Charles William Alexander Lindsay, a surgeon from Londonderry, Ireland, and Jane Elizabeth Lindsay, nee Williams, daughter of Rev. Thomas Williams a Wesleyan missionary.^[4]

Robert Lindsay met Jane Williams after he established a medical practice at Creswick. They were married in nearby Ballarat on 18 May 1869.^[5] Ten children followed, all born at Creswick, with five of them becoming artists and writers. Norman was the fourth son and the most well known. He had a blood disorder and until the age of six, remained indoors because any strenuous physical activity brought on a blistering rash. While kept inside, he taught himself to draw by copying illustrations from magazines and by drawing things he saw each day at home.^[6]

In 1895, Norman moved to Melbourne to work on the first of a number of local magazines with his older brother Lionel. Living a Bohemian lifestyle, Norman attended life class at the National Gallery, and together with his brother and his brothers' friends, frequented theatres, music-halls, prize-fights and the courts in search of copy. They joined the students' club known as the Prehistoric Order of Cannibals, founded in 1893, whose members included fellow artists Will Dyson, Miles Evergood, Max Meldrum, Hugh McCrae, Ernest Moffitt and Harry Weston.^[2]

During the summer of 1897-98 Norman spent some months living in a gardener's cottage in the grounds of Charterisville, near Heidelberg, with Lionel and their friend Ernest Moffitt. Moffitt introduced him to the Greek pastoral poets and the works of Frederick Sandys, the Pre-Raphaelite illustrator, and urged him to go his own independent way in art. Norman began making sets of pen-and-ink illustrations to classics that appealed to him, beginning with The Idylls of Theocritus, in line only, then turned to line and wash for The Decameron drawings, placing the figures in settings inspired by the Charterisville garden. The brothers also read widely; Rabelais and Dickens were favourites. After Lionel read Thomas Common's translation of Nietzsche's The Antichrist and Contra Wagner, Nietzsche became the leading influence in Norman's philosophy of art and life, reinforcing his rejection of Christianity and the Puritan values of his mother, who he believed had constrained his childhood freedom excessively. After Moffitt's untimely death in 1899, the brothers' lives began to diverge.^[2]

Norman met Kate Parkinson through her brother in 1899, when many young men were going off to fight in the Boer War in South Africa. Kate became pregnant and they were married.^[7] Norman and Kate had three children named Jack, Raymond, and Phillip. Money was tight until a friend took his Decameron drawings and showed them to J. F. Archibald at the Bulletin, a weekly magazine published in Sydney from 1880 until 2008, that was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I. After this, Norman was invited to join the Bulletin staff. It became an association lasting over fifty years.^[2][8]

Rose Soady began modelling for Norman in 1902, when she was 16 years of age. She would become his most recognizable model. Norman's style changed at this time, and he became more concerned with light and colour. He produced a major series of drawings, The Scoffers (1903), Pollice Verso (1904) and Dionysus (1905), in which he attacked prevailing attitudes to sex. Despite critics severely criticising Norman's subject matter, his work sold well and in the years leading up to World War I he achieved a higher income than any other Australian artist.^[2]

Successful exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne provided sufficient funds for Norman to leave for London in October 1909 with his sister Ruby and Will Dyson, recently married. With him were over 400 drawings for a projected illustrated edition of the Memoirs of Casanova. His marriage was over and Rose joined him in London in 1910. Although Norman had some success in London, he was not happy there and the couple returned home to Sydney by the end of the year.^[2]

Norman and Rose purchased a house in Faulconbridge, near Springwood in the Blue Mountains, in 1912. This would be their permanent home, and they were visited by such well-known figures as Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, Dame Nellie Melba and Miles Franklin. Norman exhibited some of his earliest paintings in oils and a model of Captain James Cook's Endeavour. While in London he had studied and made careful drawings of ship models in the Victoria and Albert Museum. But his most controversial work was Crucified Venus, depicting a tonsured monk nailing a naked woman to a tree, to the approval of a mob of exultant clerics and wowsers below. When shown in the All Australian Exhibition, Melbourne, in September 1913, it so outraged opinion that the management committee removed it. It was only rehung when his friend, artist Julian Ashton, threatened to withdraw all work from New South Wales.^[2]

Norman's diversity began to extend to writing around this time. He commenced publishing stories in the Lone Hand in 1907, and in 1913 his first novel, A Curate in Bohemia, based on memories of his Melbourne years, was published.^[2]

Norman Lindsay postcards used to promote recruitment and conscription during World War I

In 1917 Norman heard the news that his brother, Reginald, had been killed in the Battle of the Somme. Norman later received Reginald’s blood-stained notebook. After that Norman turned to spiritualism with Rose and he used a ouija board to communicate with Reginald. Norman also said he talked to William Shakespeare and Apollo. Because of his new found interest, Lionel would no longer talk to him. Their sister, Ruby, died of influenza in 1919.^[2]

To distract from the horrors of the Great War, Norman wrote and illustrated The Magic Pudding, a whimsical children's book that remains a favourite with Australians 100 years later.^[9] He also produced and exhibited his first etchings with Rose as his partner. She printed them, assembled the editions, and than cancelled the used plates.^[2]

Images from The Magic Pudding

Kate petitioned for divorce in 1919,^[10] which allowed Norman and Rose to marry on 14 January 1920 at Hawthorn, Strathfield, in New South Wales.^[11] Besides being his most recognisable model, Rose also became his business manager and the printer for most of his etchings. They had 2 children, Jane and Helen.^[12]

In 1923 Sydney Ure Smith and Ashton arranged a large exhibition of Australian art at the Royal Academy in London. When shown in London, Norman's work attracted large crowds. Most London critics, like the Australians, praised his technique but criticised the subject-matter. Norman really admired Sir William Orpen's work, but Sir William said Norman’s work was bad. Sir William wrote, “It shows no sign of art, no technique—nothing. Ignore it.”^[13]

Working as a writer and artist throughout the 1920s, Norman produced short stories and novels, pen drawings, etchings and dry-points, watercolors and ship-models, showing his work regularly in the annual exhibitions.^[2] He immortalised the town of Creswick with his novel Redheap, published in 1930. Based on real life characters struggling with the social restrictions of the time, in 1930 it became the first Australian novel to be banned in Australia.^[14] Although the book could still be purchased in England and the United States of America under the title, Every Mother's Son, an Australian edition was not published until 1959.^[2]

Disgusted at the banning of his book, Norman travelled the world through the 1930s. When he returned to Australia, he called this period of depression his hunchback phase. He couldn't work so he left Springwood in 1934 and rented a studio at 12 Bridge Street, Sydney. He began to paint only in oils for the first time, working with models.^[2]

Norman published the semi-autobiographical work Age of Consent in 1938. It was the story of a middle aged painter on a trip to a rural area. He meets an adolescent girl who models for him and then becomes his lover. The book was published in England and banned in Australia until 1962.^[15]

Norman's nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Rose took sixteen crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to America to protect them from the war, but they were discovered when the train they were on caught fire and were impounded and burned as pornography by American officials. Rose's older brother, Lionel, remembers Norman saying at the time, "Don't worry. I'll do more."^[16]

Norman continued to write and paint, but remained controversial. He died on 21 November 1969 at Springwood,^[17] survived by his second wife, Rose, and their two daughters, and by his son, Jack, who had become a writer. He was interred in the Springwood Cemetery.^[18] His estate was valued for probate at $65,698. Norman's autobiography, My Mask, was published in 1970.^[2] The National Trust (New South Wales) acquired the property, now known as the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, in 1970.^[19] Many of the surrounding streets are named after characters from Lindsay's works.

The 1994 movie, Sirens, was filmed at Norman's home in Faulconbridge. It is the story of an Anglican minister who had just arrived in Australia from England. He is asked to visit the notorious artist, Norman Lindsay, out of the church's concern about a blasphemous painting of the crucifix that the artist plans to exhibit.^[20]

Norman Lindsay's home at Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales

DNA

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Please direct any questions about the DNA analysis or any DNA confirmation data to Veronica Williams 21:37, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ Australian Artist Norman Lindsay (Pinterest, http://www.pinterest.com/cmcoulton/australian-artist-norman-lindsay/ : accessed 11 Apr 2021) features mostly drawings of nudes.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Bernard Smith, 'Lindsay, Norman Alfred (1879–1969)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lindsay-norman-alfred-7757/text12457, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 11 April 2021.
3. ↑ Model Ships by Norman Lindsay (Norman Lindsay, archived at Wayback Machine 31 Mar 2015, retrieved 11 Apr 2021)
4. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Birth (https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history : accessed 10 Apr 2021) index entry for Lindsay, Unnamed Male (Father: Robert Charles Lindsay, Mother: Jane Elizabeth Williams, Birth Place: Creswick, Registration Number: 1877/1879).
5. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Marriage (https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history : accessed 11 Apr 2021) index entry for Robert Charles Lindsay and Jane Elizabeth Williams (Registration number: 1492/1869)
6. ↑ Norman Lindsay (Creswick. A Living History., https://www.creswick.net/creswick/history/people/the_lindsay_family/norman-lindsay/ : accessed 11 Apr 2021)
7. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Marriage (https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history : accessed 27 Apr 2021) index entry for Norman Alfd Wm Lindsay and Kathn Agatha Parkinson (Registration number: 2374/1900)
8. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "The Bulletin (Australian periodical)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bulletin_(Australian_periodical)&oldid=1017134363 (accessed April 14, 2021).
9. ↑ Morley, Sarah. The Magic Pudding. One of Australia’s best known children’s stories. (State Library of New South Wales, https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/magic-pudding : accessed 28 Apr 2021)
10. ↑ The Age, Melbourne, Victoria, 21 June 1919, page 14, column 4, An Artist Divorced (Trove, National Library of Australia, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?type=newspapers : accessed 27 April 2021)
11. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, New South Wales. Online index - Marriage (https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyhistory, accessed 27 Apr 2021) index entry for Norman A.W. Lindsay and Rose Soady (District: Burwood, Registration Number: 4174/1920).
12. ↑ More Norman Lindsay Biographical Notes (NormanLindsay.net, http://www.normanlindsay.net/Biography2.htm : accessed 27 Apr 2021)
13. ↑ Norman Lindsay – “he had no art” according to Sir William Orpen. (SirWilliamOrpen.com, http://www.sirwilliamorpen.com/norman-lindsay-he-had-no-art-according-to-sir-william-orpen/ : accessed 27 Apr 2021)
14. ↑ The Argus, Melbourne, Victoria, 22 May 1930, page 7, column 1, "Redheap" Banned (Trove, National Library of Australia, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?type=newspapers : accessed 10 April 2021)
15. ↑ Baxter, John. Carnal knowledge : Baxter's concise encyclopedia of modern sex. Harper Perennial 2009. Page 4. Entry for Age of Consent (1938). (Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/carnalknowledgeb00baxt/page/4/mode/2up?q=norman+lindsay : accessed 27 Apr 2021)
16. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Norman Lindsay," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norman_Lindsay&oldid=1007968349 (accessed April 27, 2021).
17. ↑ Death Index (Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, New South Wales, https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyhistory, accessed 27 Apr 2021) index entry for Lindsay, Norman Alfred W. (Father: Robert Charles, Mother: Jane, District: Penrith, Registration Number: 36821/1969).
18. ↑ Burial Record (Blue Mountains City Council, https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/community/cemeteries/grave-location-search : accessed 27 Apr 2021) database entry for Lindsay, Norman Alfred William (Cemetery: Springwood Cemetery, Death Date: 21 Nov 1969, Age: 90y, Denomination: Methodist, Location: Section SME1, Row D, Plot 16).
19. ↑ Norman Lindsay Gallery (National Trust NSW, https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/norman-lindsay-gallery/ : accessed 27 Apr 2021)
20. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Sirens (1994 film)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sirens_(1994_film)&oldid=1013525506 (accessed April 27, 2021).

See also:

• Norman Lindsay Original Woodblock Prints (Norman Lindsay, archived at Wayback Machine 27 Jan 2014, Retrieved 10 Apr 2021)

• Clifford-Smith, Silas. 2008. Norman Lindsay. (Dictionary of Sydney, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/lindsay_norman : accessed 27 Apr 2021)

• Norman Lindsay (Creswick A Living History, https://www.creswick.net/creswick/history/people/the_lindsay_family/norman-lindsay/ : accessed 27 Apr 2021)

• Unsung Illustrators