Spoil – No 28 of 40 (1937)

Tiffany’s Research Notes on “Spoil”:

“Spoil” was etched by Norman Lindsay in 1937, late in his etching career, and comes from a small edition of only 40 copies, making “Spoil” rarer than many of his other original etching editions that numbered to 55. Pirates and their plunder were the subject and inspiration for several of Lindsay’s works. As a boy, and a young developing artist, Norman and his older brother Lionel were fascinated by pirates and tales of adventure on the sea. Pirate subjects became a popular choice for Norman as the novels he read during childhood and adolescence made a lasting impression on his fertile imagination. Interwoven through his imagery for the rest of his life in several etchings, watercolours and oil paintings, were subjects that featured buccaneers, pirates, booty, mermaids, galleons of the sea, alien lands, and the spoils of capture as we see here in this entertaining etching “Spoil”.
Humorously too, when Norman and his brother Lionel were seeking inspiration for their first works
as early adults, rum was their choice of drink to stir their imagination.

Norman’s love of sea legends was well known, and he held a lifelong fascination with the lost city of Atlantis. Norman also built many ship models for relaxation. He wrote about his use of pirates as a recurring theme: “I have been frequently asked why I have often painted pirates and piratical subjects … Man’s violence to man is a theme which has inspired all that is great in art, from the Greeks down … The whole spectacle of life must be art’s objective, and in that spectacle, scoundrelism on the high seas makes a richly coloured patch, whether it be covered by patriotic brigandage, as with Drake, or a straight out lust for plunder, as with Morgan … The pirate is a colourful ruffian and I have frequently got good subjects out of his sacking of cities for plunder in gold and women …”. Other etchings from the “Spoil” edition are represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Queensland Art Gallery.