Merryn Schriever
Managing Director, Australia
Lot 31
Norman Lindsay(1879-1969)The Key, c.1933
1 December 2015, 18:30 AEDT
Melbourne, ArmadaleAU$12,000 - AU$18,000
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Alex Clark
Head of Sale, Senior Specialist
Norman Lindsay (1879-1969)
The Key, c.1933
signed lower left: 'Norman Lindsay'
watercolour on paper
34.0 x 24.0cm (13 3/8 x 9 7/16in).
signed lower left: 'Norman Lindsay'
watercolour on paper
34.0 x 24.0cm (13 3/8 x 9 7/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE
Mrs Molly Welles, Sydney
Geoff K. Gray, Australian and European Paintings, Sydney, 27 March 1974, lot 150
Private collection
Goodmans Auctioneers, Australian Art, Sydney, 2 March 2001, lot 152
Private collection, Sydney
LITERATURE
Lin Bloomfield, Norman Lindsay: Watercolours 1897-1969, Odana Editions, New South Wales, 2003, p.226 (illus.)
Attached to the reverse of the painting is a letter from Molly Welles which reads:
'In approximately 1929 he [Norman Lindsay] saw a film depicting the early days of France, when the country was in a dreadful upheaval mainly due to religious wars. The women were handed "The Key" to the City to improve the conditions they made a wonderful success.
Mr Lindsay's own words: 'As I have the highest regard for the female sex I decided to put the scene to pen. I was eighteen months collecting the frocking and colour of that era from overseas. Hence; the Water Colour "THE KEY".'
