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Self Portrait
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Title |
Self
Portrait |
Size |
35.4 x 30.4 cm |
Date Published |
1974 |
Reference |
Norman Lindsay Etchings: Catalogue
Raisonné (Odana
Editions and Josef Lebovic Gallery, 1999, cat.317) |
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| Self Portrait is the graphic depiction
of an artist in torment. A hunched Norman Lindsay, clutching his
etching needle, is presented,
manacled, between the male nude satyr and female nude. This central
group forms the picture around which are massed the creatures of
his imagination: demons, satyrs, nudes and the ominous figure of
the sword-wielding dwarf. Self Portrait is the most revealing
of all Norman's etchings and needling the plate was a lengthy process.
In a letter to John Hetherington,
Norman discussed the ease with which he wrote compared to the consummate
difficulty in etching and specifically referred to Self Portrait: ...
I have tried both mediums, and can speak authoritatively on their
time factors. I could write the major portion of a novel like Cousin
from Fiji in the time it takes me to produce an etching like Self
Portrait. It was an etching that continued to preoccupy
him years after it was published. In a letter to sister Mary, written
in his old age,
Norman wrote: ... Self Portrait was done during the period
you stayed with us at Springwood. It reflects the state of my mind
during those years,
which I'll swear I kept well under cover from detection by others.
You, who probably know me better than others, could affirm that,
I think. Anyway, it is definitely autobiographical ... Norman
had turned fifty in 1929 and the capacity to create had abandoned
him. His distress during this phase (which lasted for several years)
is portrayed in Self Portrait. It was this etching that brought the
criticism of Norman's work, which had been steadily growing over
the years, to a head. It is difficult now for us to comprehend just how much controversy
was engendered by Norman and to what extent he was affected by it.
At first he simply shrugged it off, but as the attacks on his work
gathered momentum he became disheartened and, in the end, fearful.
He had been a target for puritanical-minded officialdom since 1899
when he was first involved in police action. This was the result
of a poster he had designed for a company marketing a contraceptive
called 'Solvit'. Public outcry caused a progressive Venereal Diseases
Bill, which was about to pass through the Victorian Parliament, to
be abandoned. |
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