Norman Lindsay drawings for The Bulletin magazine

PXD 1652

fonds

approximately 1901-1951

Graphic Materials, Drawings

9680394

126 drawings - 68 x 39 cm or smaller - pencil and ink, ink and wash

Norman Alfred William Lindsay was born on 22 February 1879 in Creswick, Victoria. He was one of ten children, and all were encouraged in artistic pursuits by their mother and grandfather. Norman Lindsay's early drawings were published in his school paper, and later in the Free Lance, a publication which only existed for the year of 1896. He then found work at various publications including the Hawklet, the Tocsin, the Clarion and the Gadfly. During this period, his work was noticed by A.G. Stephens of The Bulletin magazine, and he was invited to come to Sydney, New South Wales, and join the magazine staff in 1901. It was a position he would retain for over fifty years, his style strongly defining the visual scape of the publication. In 1907, he and Frank Fox, assistant editor of the Bulletin, conceived the Lone Hand monthly publication which ran until 1921. Following several successful exhibitions of his work, Lindsay travelled to London in October 1909 where he published an illustrated edition of Satyricon. Upon returning to Sydney at the end of 1910, he fell ill with pleurisy and settled in Springwood, New South Wales for his convalescence, with Rose Soady, his model and ongoing lover. He continued illustrating throughout the First World War, and, in 1918, he created the children's classic, The Magic Pudding. He worked prolifically through the 1920s and, in 1930, he published a controversial semi-autobiographical novel, Redheap. Following controversy around the book, Lindsay travelled to New York and London, but had returned to Australia by April 1934 and rented a studio at 12 Bridge Street, Sydney. When World War II began, he returned to Springwood where he remained until his death on 21 November 1969. Though he was sacked from The Bulletin in mid-1958, his final cartoon appearing on 18 March 1967.

He married twice, firstly to Kathleen (Katie) Agatha Parkinson (1879-1949) (sometimes written as Katherine/Catherine) on 23 May 1900 in Melbourne, Victoria, with whom he had three sons. They divorced in 1918, and on 14 January 1920, he married Rose Soady (1885-1978), with whom he had two daughters.

Resources:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. "Norman Alfred Lindsay (1879-1969)". Accessed 3 June 2024. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lindsay-norman-alfred-7757

Design & Art Australia Online. "Norman Lindsay". Accessed 3 June 2024. https://www.daao.org.au/bio/norman-lindsay/biography/

Wikipedia. "Norman Lindsay". Accessed 3 June 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Lindsay

Daily Telegraph. 21 June 1919. Accessed 3 June 2024. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/153048892

Drawings were formerly held at the office of Consolidated Press Holdings, the publisher of The Bulletin magazine, and were subsequently inherited by Gretel Packer.

126 drawings by Norman Lindsay created for The Bulletin magazine between approximately 1901 and 1951.

BOX 1
1. ‘Two Child Rolands’, 1937
2. ‘At the Anti-Comintern “Conference”’, 1941
3. ‘Millinery Surrender’, c.1937
4. ‘Uncertain Quantity’, c. 1937
5. ‘Marseillaise’ c.1940
6. ‘Imperfect Peace’, c. 1937
7. ‘Peace Gesture’, c. 1937
8. ‘’The World is Waiting for the Sunrise” — But Eden Isn’t’, c. 1937
9. ‘No Credentials’, c. 1937
10. ‘Return from Doorn’, c. 1940
11. ‘Short Man Talking to a Tall Man’
12. Trust Him Not — He is Fooling Thee’, 1940
13. "Burning” Problems’, c.1937
14. ‘The Censor and His Job’, c.1940
15. ‘The World’s Worst Sheik.’ c.1940
16. ‘Sesquicentenary’.
17. ‘Night-Piece at Berchtesgaden.’ c.1940
18. The Marseillavalaise’
19. ‘The Year of Recompense’, 1942

BOX 2
1. ‘Whispering Senators’
2. Man with Ball Appealing to Woman’
3. ‘Britannia Left with the Baby’, 1935
4. ‘Next, Please!’
5. ‘At the Amateur Strategists’ Club.’
6. ‘Non-Smokers Soliloquy.’
7. ‘He Would Double the Parts.’
8. ‘Sure to Get “The Bird.”’ 1937
9. ‘In the Over-Promised Land’
10. ‘Impregnable.’
11. ‘No Tariff Wall in this Case.’ 1938
12. ‘Not “Absolutely” Free.’
13. ‘Engaged.’ 1938
14. ‘Another Victory for Communists.’
15. ‘They're All at it Now.’ 1935
16. ‘Medieval Interruption.’ 1938
17. ‘Carlos Amenable.’
18. ‘Greek Tragedy.’
19. ‘Blocking the Traffic’

BOX 3
1. ‘Anglo-American Poker’
2. ‘On the Ship of State’, c. 1937
3. ‘As One Old Soldier to Another.’
4. ‘Safety First.’ C. 1940
5. ‘Sequel to the First Stone.’ 1937
6. ‘Non-Co-Operation.’ 1938
7. ‘Collective Insecurity.’
8. ‘Business as Usual.’ 1935
9. ‘Conditional Immunity Guaranteed.’ 1935
10. .‘When Knighthood was Overblown.’ c. 1940
11. ‘Politics First.’ 1938
12. ‘The One Certain Cure for Black Marketing’ 1943
13. ‘Man Being Placed in Cannon’
14. Two Pairs — Kings on Top.’ c. 1940
15. ‘First — and Last?’ c.1940 Art ID: AVA01021 8.312/D34
16. .‘The Collective Insecurity Ballet.’
17. .When Two Strong Men Stand Face to Face.’ c. 1940
18. ‘Martyr to Principal.’ c. 1940
19. ‘Rejected Address’

BOX 4
1. ‘(Section 92A) Three Men and a Jacket’
2. ‘The Mighty Soviet War Machine Swings into Action’
3. ‘The Loan-Pegging Competition.’
4. ‘Back to Bulawayo.’
5. ‘His Reward.’
6. ‘Another Australian-Eleven Washout.’
7. ‘In Darkest America’
8. ‘Communism Enlightening the World.’
9. ‘This Freedom.’
10. ‘Moral Support Always on Tap.’ 1938
11. ‘Chinese family and man talking’ ‘Chinese Storekeeper’
12. ‘Safe at last’
13. ‘The Shepherd’s holiday’
14. ‘Bather being admired on beach’
15. ‘A Change of Wind’
16. ‘After Six Years’
17. ‘Goods for Black Fascist Powers’
18. ‘Indisposed’
19. ‘Nothing Doing’

BOX 5
1. Sleeping drunk
2. Police officer shouting at man with raised fists
3. “Flustered love” (stamped on verso “Published Feb 28, ‘18”)
4. Bearded man in crowd
5. Man with a cigar and old man
6. Man on chair above soldiers with bayonets
7. Child sitting in doorway (with cancelled drawing on verso “A case that called for strong swearing(?)”) 1902
8. Short man in bowler hat talking to a tall man
9. Bank teller and customer
10. Two men talking in an alley
11. Frontispiece for The Bulletin
12. Group of men fighting
13. Seated man in an office
14. Two men at a table with a dog, 1904

BOX 6
1. Hitchhiking drunk
2. Man and girl in paper shop (title on verso crossed out “The prevailing craze”) 1902
3. Dejected man in front of a crowd / Man outside crowd
4. “Comparison” 1902
5. “My Tea-Room Tart”
6. Swaggie at the kitchen door
7. Woman inspecting cloth in a shop
8. Chinese in Cemetery
9. Kitchen maid and Madam
10. Man talking to well-dressed man with umbrella
11. “Justification” (stamped on verso “Published Nov 28, ‘18”)

BOX 7
1. Man inquiring about ‘Vote for Hokey!’
2. Five men in discussion
3. Henry Willis travelling
4. Two ladies, one seated, one standing
5. Sleep, My Beloved, Sleep
6. Man holding back a police officer against two criminals
7. “Lelia”
8. Parson pointing an umbrella at a man
9. “The War of Races in Paddy’s Markets” 1905
10. “A Ghost (for The Bulletin)”
11. Bricklayer falling off a building
12. “The Religious Maniac”
13. Soldier in a cocked hat in front of a clerk
14. Two men talking beside a green
15. Man with top hat and cigar talking to man at desk

BOX 8
1. Two frowning men, one in a coat
2. Man on the ground with the silhouette of a bear behind
3. Man Haranguing Crowd
4. Man with a top hat and umbrella with a police officer
5. Two Men outside the number 3 bar
6. Two ladies, one with broom, and man
7. Man offering a pumpkin to a woman in kitchen
8. Drunk man on the ground beside a laughing boy and men
9. Puglists (men boxing)
10. Man looking at the devil

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: The estate of Norman Lindsay
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Titles of drawings devised by cataloguer based on vendor information.

Some titles may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.

Date range based on subjects of drawings, sometimes annotated with a paid date, and Lindsay’s tenure as cartoonist at The Bulletin.