NORMAN LINDSAY FACSIMILE ETCHINGS
CURRENT EDITIONS |
One of Norman's superb talents includes his outstanding skill in etching. Combined with his extraordinary imagination and supreme technical skills, Norman's etchings have been regarded as some of the world's best. His incredible twenty-year partnership with his wife and favourite model Rose, who is recognised as a master etching printmaker, ensured Norman Lindsay's etchings were unique and exceptional in the history of Australian art.
Producing 200 published and a further 175 unpublished etchings, Norman Lindsay is considered a master in the field. His talent and interest in the art of etching is evident in The Craft of Etching, where Norman details the precision and delicacy with which he approaches etching his subjects.
With exclusive rights to publish Norman Lindsay Facsimile Etchings, Odana Editions is proud to present an extensive array of Norman's most famous, loved and respected etchings. All of Odana's Norman Lindsay Facsimile Etchings are printed according to the highest quality and standard. Each Facsimile is now printed on 238gsm acid-free, archival quality Teton paper, with the colour chosen in order to be as close to the original colour by Rose. To ensure the limited edition status of the Facsimile Etchings, all original printing materials and plates used for the printed process have first been cancelled and then destroyed.
The
Norman Lindsay Facsimile Etchings are published in strict accordance
with copyright conditions. Authenticity is guaranteed by an embossed
seal in the lower right hand corner of the image and all works are accompanied
by a Certificate of Authenticity. Each image is individually hand-numbered
and once an edition has sold out, it is never again released.
Each Norman Lindsay Facsimile Etching is in an edition of 550
and size is image size only. Prices are for works in excellent
condition and unframed unless noted otherwise. $20.00 freight,
handling, packaging and insurance is applicable for all orders
within Australia. For overseas orders, please contact us.
Please note that the images which have space around their image
(such as Light
Lyrics and Rose Lindsay Bookplate, for example) have been
cropped to show just the image. Many images with space around the edges
are in a different proportion than shown here. |
| current editions FOR SALE |
PIRATES' CAPTIVES
13.8
x 13.1 cm
Published: 2000
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.1)
Norman's
first experiment with etching was in 1897, twenty years before he became
seriously involved with the medium. (Pirates' Captives) was the
result and depicts a robust pirate scene (rather reminiscent of a woodcut
It is annotated:
'This little etchings was done in the year 1897. My brother Lionel started
etching at that time so I experiment with example of the Black Art'.
This annotation appears below the image on the facsimile etching.
The original etching was never published and the only original of this
work is on view at the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, Faulconbridge. |
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THE
LACE HEAD-DRESS
12.1
x 8.2 cm
Published: 2009
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.73)
The
original etching was never published. |
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NUDE
WITH MANTILLA
13.6
x 10.9 cm
Published: 2001
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.18)
Rose
was the model. The original etching was never published. |
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ROSE
LINDSAY BOOKPLATE
17.6
x 13.0 cm
Published: 2001
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.59)
Rose
was the model. The original etching was etched in 1919. Rose's interest
in books had been aroused by the experience of observing Norman writing
his first two successful novels, A Curate in Bohemia (1913) and The
Magic Pudding (1918), and she began to take an interest in collecting her own
books. Her bookplate is titled Lysistrata. On the two Mitchell Library
proofs Norman printed 'Rose Lindsay her Book. NL' in ink, centre right.
The original
etching was never published. |
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THE
BOUDOIR
15.2
x 12.5 cm
Published: 2005
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.33)
The
original etching was never published. |
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FROLIC
12.5 x 10.0 cm
Published: 2007
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.104)
The original etching was never
published. |
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JOURNALISM
AND ART
15.6
x 13.9 cm
Published: 1999
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.167)
The
original etching was never published. |
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DANCE,
PUPPET, DANCE
14.4
x 11.6 cm
Published: 2008
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.329)
Dance,
Puppet, Dance was etched in 1933 and the puppet is a caricature
of Norman. The original etching was published in an edition of 10 and
is exceptionally rare. |
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THE MANTILLA AVAILABLE 7 DECEMBER 2011
17.5 x 14.0 cm
Published: 2011
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.264)
The original drypoint and etching was etching in 1925 in an edition of only 35 and was first exhibited the same year at Grosvenor Galleries.
The Mantilla is an excellent example of the way in which drypoint enriches texture which can be seen clearly in this etching.
A mantilla is a light scarf, usually made of black lace, worn by women (particularly Spanish women) to cover their head and shoulders. |
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BOOTY
25.3 x
20.5 cm
Published: 2009
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.349)
Pirates
and their plunder formed the basis of numerous works in oil and watercolour
and are represented by five published etchings: Booty,
Captain Bilbo, Gentlemen of Fortune, Panama and Spoil.
Booty is the first pirate subject
from a published etching to be reproduced as a Facsimile Etching. |
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DESERT ISLAND
25.4 x 20.2 cm
Published: 2007
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.331)
Desert
Island probably had its genesis in Norman's early reading. Coral
Island, one of the first books which Norman had read, expanded
These first books colour all our after life. I feel
a stirring of the heart now, when I recall their glories
... If I could get rid of the curse of an artistic conscience,
acquired by years of striving after the visible aspects
of life, I believe I would prefer to write dream books
like Coral Island, if I were found worthy ...
The original etching
of Desert Island is extremely rare and unusual.
The original is marked as an edition of 55 but it is
thought that the plate failed at 36. The central alluring
female figure is Polynesian and as well as a pirate,
a reptilian humanoid and harpie are included. |
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SARABAND
19.8
x 14.6 cm
Published: 2009
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.356)
The
original aquatint and etching was etched in 1937 in an edition of only
30 and was first exhibited in the 1958 David Jones' Art Gallery exhibition
of two hundred original etchings. This was the largest exhibition of Norman
Lindsay etchings held to date until the Art Gallery of Western Australia's
exhibition of all two hundred published etchings in 2006.
A sarabande is a Spanish dance in triple time and can be spelt with or
without the 'e'. Norman and Rose used both spellings when titling the
edition — Saraband and Sarabande.
Saraband has only been reproduced in one book prior to The
Complete Etchings of Norman Lindsay which was the Angus & Robertson's
1973 volume Norman
Lindsay: Two Hundred Etchings. |
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30.5
x 25.3 cm
Published: 2007
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.278)
Seventeen
of Norman's published etchings (from a total of 200) are pure drypoint,
that is, not used in conjunction with any other method. The original Light
Lyrics is one of these etchings. |
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15.2 x 9.3 cm
Published: 2008
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.68)
Creative
Effort and Our Earth are the second releases of Facsimile
Etchings from our 'Etchings in Books' series. The folio contains, as
well as the two Facsimile Etchings, a brochure with details of the
two books — Creative Effort and Our Earth in
which the original etchings of the same titles, Creative Effort and Our
Earth, are included and also the essay 'The Craft of Etching'
by Norman Lindsay.
Creative Effort had its genesis in World War I (1914–1918).
From the beginning Norman had been affected by the war and depressed
at the way it was changing the world. In 1916, Norman's brother
Reg was killed on the Somme. In a poignant letter to Olive Hetherington,
written in May 1958, Norman recalled the impact of the war years: 'At
this date it is hard to convey the sense of horror that war inflicted
on humanity … one walked the streets to see half the women
in black, mothers, wives, sisters in mourning for their dead … in
those times I paid frequent visits to Creswick and met many mothers
mourning for their sons; some of whom were the girls I had known
in my youth …'
For several years Norman had been wrestling with the timeless question
of good versus evil and although he was not a believer in any orthodox
religion, the war crystallised his belief in the survival of the spirit
after death. The cataclysmic effect of the war and the death of Reg brought
Norman to the belief that artistic reality freed the artist from earth
into a spiritual world. The need to have some assurance that there was
some form of life after death drove many grieving relatives to seek solace
in spiritualism. Ouija boards, which enabled groups of people to try and
communicate with the dead, became a popular pastime and under the circumstances
it was hardly surprising that Norman thought that he could speak with Reg
via the board.
It was this assay into the occult that gave Norman the final impetus
he needed to write Creative Effort. He felt that a universal
state of moral degeneration had led to the war and tried to put his
own values into some sort of order. Years later, long after he had
repudiated its message, he tried to explain how he had felt: ' As
for Creative Effort — well,
I suppose you'll have to read the thing as it embodies an outlook on life
and art that engrossed me at the time of writing, based on the ferment
of ideas with which I was infected after the 1914 war.'
Although many of the principles found in Creative Effort are
sound, others original and arresting, it is impossible to overlook
the fact that Creative
Effort is a confusing collection of Norman's thoughts on life, death,
good, evil, truth, sex, knowledge and other associated ideas. In essence,
Norman affirmed that the arts are of paramount importance. He maintained
that it is in creative art, and creative art alone, that the direction
of life can be found."
The original etching Creative Effort (1920, 15.2 x 9.3 cm) was
published in 1920 in the book of the same name. The etching symbolises
creative effort as a woman with a halo of light emerging triumphant over
the forces of darkness. |
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OUR EARTH
15.6 x 12.4 cm
Published: 2008
Reference: Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue Raisonné (Odana Editions
and
Josef Lebovic Gallery, 2006, cat.170)
Our
Earth and Creative Effort are the second releases of
Facsimile Etchings from our 'Etchings in Books' series. The folio contains,
as well as the two Facsimile Etchings, a brochure with details of the
two books — Creative Effort and Our Earth in
which the original etchings of the same titles, Creative Effort and Our
Earth, are included and also the essay 'The Craft of Etching'
by Norman Lindsay.
Kenneth Mackenzie's 'Our Earth', a long blank-verse poem, is
simultaneously a celebration of the natural beauty and bounty
of the Earth and a protest against its corruption by man and
machine. The Earth's seasons — the
seeding of spring, maturing of summer, harvest of autumn and winter sleep — are
at one with Earth's inhabitants. The cycle of life — conception,
gestation, birth and death — are the seasons of man.
The original etching Our Earth (1936, 15.6 x 12.4 cm) was
published in
1937 in an edition of 225, the largest edition illustrated with an original
etching by Norman. The etching evokes an image of great beauty and contrasts
it with the callous discord of mechanisation as McKenzie described.
The 1930s was the most productive decade of Mackenzie's career and
began when he submitted some poems to the Endeavour Press, which
led to his association with Norman. The chief aim of the Endeavour
Press was to publish and promote Australian novels and poetry. Norman's
friend, P. R. Stephensen convinced Norman to be the reader for the
new publishing venture and with the support of the Bulletin,
the Endeavour Press was established in 1932. Norman read manuscripts
and encouraged new writers, in the hope that the Australian market
could support an adventurous publisher. Norman described his aims: 'I'm
not awarding myself any moral superiority when I say that when reading
for the Endeavour Press, the only objective I had in mind was to
find the quality in writing and creative ingenuity in the works I
read, without giving any consideration to what might be their saleable
qualities.
The timing of the venture defeated it. The effects of the Great Depression
was especially harsh in Australia and the market was small. The Endeavour
Press folded after only two years.
Thanks to Norman, Mackenzie was able to publish Our Earth as
his first book of verse. The year was 1937, the Depression had officially
ended but too many were still without a job. Norman's offer to illustrate
the poem meant that its publication could become viable. Mackenzie
was grateful and the dedication to Our Earth reads: 'To
Norman Lindsay in sincere friendship and true esteem and gratitude'. |
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Page updated:
30 November, 2011
2001-2011 Odana Editions Pty Ltd |
