The Dancer 1935

NORMAN LINDSAY (1879-1969)

The Dancer 1935

oil on canvas
90.0 x 70.0 cm; 112.0 x 90.5 cm (framed)
signed lower right: NORMAN LINDSAY

Provenance:
Dr K.W. Alexander, Sydney
Geoff K. Gray, Sydney, 6 October 1981, lot 50
Private collection, Sydney
Estate of the above

Reference:
Lindsay, N. & Stewart, D., Paintings in Oil: Norman Lindsay, The Shepherd Press, Sydney, 1945 (illus. pl.19, as Dancer)
Bloomfield, L., Norman Lindsay Oil Paintings 1889-1969, Odana Editions, New South Wales, 2006, pp.82-83 (illus. p.83)

Estimate: $120000 - 160000

Result Hammer: $150000

The Dancer was painted by Norman Lindsay in 1935. The time of its creation is significant, as the 1930s was not a happy decade for an artist straining against the bounds of the conventional.

From 1930 Norman Lindsay experienced some testing periods.  His novel Redheap was banned; a special Norman Lindsay issue of Art in Australia raised the possibility of Lindsay being charged with obscenity. The prosecution did not eventuate, though its prospect sent Lindsay into a depression. 

Lindsay had spent the 1920s producing a vast number of etchings, watercolours and pen drawings as well as supporting the Fanfrolico Press. As his reputation grew, he was sought out by celebrities of the day visiting Springwood in increasing numbers and with increased regularity. He supported the endeavors of young poets. Amongst the accolades, the constant objections to the subjects of his art by conservative critics exhausted him. In 1931, to escape controversy, Norman and his wife Rose left for America and England.   His parting words were ‘Goodbye for the best country in the world if it were not for the Wowsers.’(1)

Rose also felt a break would help bring some light to a marriage suffering from middle-age discontent.  Although the trip to America and England brought successful contacts with magazine and book publishers, it did not fulfill Rose’s expectations for rekindling the marriage.

In 1934, Norman found a studio at 12 Bridge Street in the Sydney central business district. Sensibly, he did not cut himself off completely from Springwood. Rose continued to print etchings and manage his affairs with her usual competence.

The years spent producing a vast output of etchings, pen and ink drawings and watercolours had drained him of inspiration. In Sydney, in his mid-50s and in new surroundings, he was mastering the art of oil painting. His earlier attempts in the medium had been sporadic. Now he was invigorated with the enthusiasm of a much younger man. A routine of rising early, reading, perhaps writing, before a model arrived at ten o’clock. The model and Lindsay were together for the next six hours with just an hour’s break for lunch.  Brushes and palette were cleaned and ready for the next day.

The studio was up two flights of stairs with good natural light for painting. Here Lindsay had access to a bedroom, bathroom and simple cooking facilities. Situated close to the office of the Bulletin magazine and Stan Nicholls’ secondhand bookshop in Crane Place, near Circular Quay, Lindsay delighted in the life of the city. In the evenings in his place of work, Lindsay welcomed his favoured guests, usually writers, for lively talks.

Not all the models who posed for him were professional artist’s models. An extensive range of female body types enabled Lindsay able to succeed in the challenge of translating flesh tones to canvas. He paid well, treated the models with respect and did not expect conversation. These women found the fees for modelling useful during the Great Depression.

Seated on a raised dais, often draped with luxurious cloth, the models presented themselves as confident, often exotic, women.   In a letter to his biographer, John Hetherington, Norman wrote:

I’ve always used a very simple principle for getting the best out of my models, and that is to build up their feminine self-esteem by flattery … it affects their colouring, the brightness of their eyes, the assurance with which they take a pose.(2)

The Dancer conveys the success of the Lindsay method.  We know the model for this painting was Glo (Gloria Williams), a dancer at the Tivoli, a popular vaudeville and variety theatre in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, famous for its dancers. The feathered headdress is a nod to her ‘other job’.  Seated on opulent fabric, self-confident and poised, her gaze indicates the viewer cannot ignore her. The light falls across her voluptuous body, accentuating her breasts, torso and raised leg. It is an invitation to admire such splendid beauty. Not an invitation to be ignored.

In the background is a screen Lindsay painted for continual use in the studio.(3) And what happened to Gloria? A 1951 newspaper reports a Gloria Williams had become a dancer with the Folies Bergère in Paris before marrying an Englishman and settling in London.

While Lindsay produced a number of large multi-figured oil compositions, The Dancer appears to be his largest single figure oil painting. It is an exceptional example of his command of oil painting. There, too, is the reverie. 

Footnotes

1. Letter from Norman Lindsay to John Hetherington, quoted in Hetherington, J., The Embattled Olympian, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1973, p.189
2. Bloomfield, L., Norman Lindsay Oil Paintings 1889-1969, Odana Editions, New South Wales, 2006, p.4
3. See the cover acknowledgement of Stewart, D., Norman Lindsay: A Personal Memoir, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1975

Helen Glad

Helen Glad is an art historian and granddaughter of Norman Lindsay.  She is the author and co-author of several publications on Lindsay’s work, including Norman Lindsay Pen Drawings 1890-1965 (edited by Lin Bloomfield, Bloomfield Galleries, Sydney, 1987) and The Legendary Lindsays (with Ursula Prunster, The Beagle Press in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995).

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