Portrait studies

c1901
Graphite on paper
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DL PX 69

Norman Lindsay worked in a variety of mediums, including oils, watercolour, pen, etching and drypoint. Yet pencil was the only one he continued to work in throughout his life. His first works were childhood drawings of family pets and backyard scenes. His last sketches were of the nurses who cared for him in hospital just prior to his death.

As a child, Lindsay had suffered from a blood disorder which prevented him from strenuous exercise and active outdoor play, but instilled in him great skills of observation:

As a small boy, I practised observation, consciously memorizing forms. My system was to study the form of a fowl, a duck, a cat, a dog, or any other specimen of livestock in our backyard, and then run inside and jot down the image of it before it faded from the mental retina.*