Lot 12

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Bloomfield Galleries, Sydney (label verso)
Private collection, Victoria
Thence by descent
Private collection, Melbourne

Bacchanal, pencil on paper, 54 x 49cm, Deutscher~Menzies, Sydney, 5 March 2002, lot 66

Norman Lindsay remains one of the most prolific, critiqued, and collected artists of the fin de siècle in Australia. Although he originally created his works through pen and ink, fellow artist Blamire Young introduced him to the romantic and spontaneous qualities of watercolour. The medium allowed him to further develop his appetite for the mythical and magical.
Lindsay's penchant for fantasy took hold during his younger years, when as a 6 year old he was confined indoors due to a rare blood disorder. Whilst being forced to refrain from the outside world, Lindsay delved deeply into his imagination where he taught himself to draw. His creativity reached new heights when, during the late 1890s, Ernest Moffitt introduced him to the Greek poets and the art of Pre-Raphaelite painter, Frederick Sandys. Suddenly, Lindsay was inspired with a new form of self-expression discovered. He traded Christianity and Puritan values prescribed by his mother, for Nietzsche, philosophy and Bacchanalia. He led, from then, a fairly bohemian life.

Norman Lindsay often returned to depictions of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, pleasure, revelry and frenzied creativity. Bacchus represented an unrestrained lifestyle, something which Lindsay deeply sought. Originally, Bacchanalia was the Roman festival held in honor of the god, but eventually came to mean any occasion of wild and drunken revelry. Bacchus was said to inspire his worshipers in their intoxicated state, freeing them to think and act in new ways. Lindsay's art, too, allowed him to explore liberating concepts and social mores, many of which were obstructed by the society of the time.
Bacchanalia permitted Lindsay with unlimited occasions to free his imagination and he explored the theme throughout his career with numerous lithographs, pen and pencil drawings, oils and watercolours. In this work, Bacchanal, Lindsay sets the scene under the crisp deep blue light of the moon. After all, at night we can become our true selves. Mythical creatures, men in fine clothing, sensuous naked females and even a friar are all uninhibited, relishing in their intoxicated states around the powerful flame of the fire at the centre.

Lindsay often teases the viewer with a hint of activity unfolding beyond the edge of the artwork to the left and right of the frame. It is as though we are granted merely a portion of the total scene unfolding. Some figures appear to run off, escaping for a moment away from prying eyes, whilst others appear to descend from above like celestial beings. The cropping technique cleverly imbues his works with a sense of mystery and spontaneity, further enhanced through the fluid and illusory nature of watercolour.

Olivia Fuller | Head of Art