Reclining c1935

NORMAN LINDSAY (1879-1969)

Reclining c1935

oil on canvas
58.5 x 73.5 cm; 85.0 x 100.5 cm (framed)
signed lower right: NORMAN LINDSAY
bears inscription verso: model/ Ruby Young [sic]/ 413/ RECLINING./ NORMAN. LINDSAY.

Provenance:
Private collection, South Australia
Private collection, Sydney
Cooks Hill Galleries, New South Wales
Private collection, New South Wales

Estimate: $40000 - 60000

Result Hammer: $38000

During the seven year period (1934-41) that Norman Lindsay lived in his studio at 12 Bridge Street in Sydney, he employed some 140 models.  He did not paint them all. The models stood or sat in diffent poses as Lindsay commanded, while he sketched them in pencil, creating working drawings for later use in paintings. Such drawings he placed in folders labelled to serve future needs - ‘standing’, ‘jumping’ or ‘back’. With comprehensive knowledge of all his works in progresss, this filing system enabled Lindsay to quickly locate the raw materials required for a composition. The artist valued models with attractive flesh tones as he grasped the intricacies of painting in oil.

The single figure paintings of this time have a particular vivacity. Unlike the larger multi-figure compositions that Lindsay completed during the same period, they are not reliant on a fantastical narrative. 

In this painting, circa 1935, the model rests against drapes that reflect light onto her graceful body. Extending one arm, the other placed behind her head, she lifts her breasts. The attention of viewers is drawn to the high-keyed torso of a confident, relaxed body. The horizontal orientation implies the repose of an odalisque. Her body fills the full length of the horizontal canvas. The French describe such women as grandes horizontales.

The model remains unidentified. The verso inscription would appear to be erroneous, as there is no record of a ‘Ruby Young’ in the artist’s notebooks. It would seem this was added later by an unknown hand.

Lindsay had an impressive array of good quality silks, satins and and embroidered laces at the studio; fabrics mostly purchased from ‘The Silk Centre’ in Pitt Street. His considered use of selected fabric would allow light to be reflected onto the model, as well as providing the model with some comfort as they posed for hours on end while the artist, ever the perfectionist, experimented in search of the correct pigments. As Lindsay explained:

I’ve always kept a sympathetic bridge with my model, They mean so much to a painter. Artists are fools who don’t make a model feel that. It is very rare one gets the sort of model that one can paint direct from and not have to add to them qualities they lack.(1)

In this painting, it is doubtful Lindsay had to embellish to create such a pleasing result.

Footnotes

1. Norman Lindsay, quoted in Bloomfield, L., Norman Lindsay Oil Paintings 1889-1969, Odana Editions, New South Wales, 2006, p.6

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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