Sir Lionel Lindsay (1874-1961) was a vocal art critic and productive artist. Influential, with a wide circle of friends, his artistic skills were many: watercolourist, etcher, wood engraver, black and white artist and book illustrator. One of ten children, five of whom became professional artists, he became noted for his etchings and engravings of Sydney architecture and of Australian birds and animals. He was a supporter of the conservative landscape tradition and an anti-modernist, calling the movement 'the cult of ugliness'. In 1899 Lindsay wrote A Consideration of the Art of Ernest Moffitt, the first monograph on an Australian artist. He later produced others on Conrad Martens and Hans Heysen. Comedy of Life, his autobiography, was published posthumously in 1967.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© National Library of Australia
Accession number: 2003.214
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Lionel Lindsay (age 49 in 1923)
Sir Richard Kingsland AO CBE DFC (2 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
A visual exploration of themes depicted in 'The Jester' by Lionel Lindsay.
Michelle Fracaro describes Lionel Lindsay's woodcut The Jester (self-portrait).
This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of self-portraits in Australia, from the colonial period to the present
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