Sir Ernest Daryl Lindsay (31 December 1889 – 25 December 1976), known as Dan Lindsay, was an Australian artist.

Early life

He was the youngest son in a large family born to Anglo-Irish surgeon Robert Charles Alexander and Jane Elizabeth Lindsay (née Williams), of Creswick, Victoria, who had ten children. Daryl and his brothers Percy (the eldest), Lionel, and Norman, achieved distinction in the arts. Ruby, also an artist, became well known in artistic circles as the wife of the cartoonist/illustrator/journalist Will Dyson. Prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Daryl became a jackaroo near Collarenebri.

Military service

He served with the AIF in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Following his active service in France, in England he made a very substantial contribution to the advancement of military reconstructive surgery with the extensive set of images he produced for Sir Harold Gillies, while serving as Lieutenant D./E. Lindsay, the official "medical artist" at the specialist military hospital at Sidcup, in Kent.

Formal studies

He made many contacts in the art world and studied at the Slade School of Art in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He had moderate success with his paintings of white flowers - a difficult subject to capture successfully.

Career

Returning to Australia he became fascinated with the ballet during first tour (1936–1937) of "''Colonel W. de Basil's Monte Carlo Russian Ballet''" (i.e., the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

) to Australia, sketching them during rehearsals, as in their performances. He later published a book of his sketches, ''Back stage with the Covent Garden Russian ballet'', and illustrated Arnold Haskell's memoirs, ''Dancing Round the World: Memoirs of an Attempted Escape from Ballet''. In 1940, he became a curator at the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

, rising to director from 1942 to 1956. He also became a member of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board in 1953. On 31 May 1956 he was knighted for "services to art".

Personal life

In 1922, in England, he married Joan à Beckett Weigall, who, as Joan Lindsay, would later write '' Picnic at Hanging Rock''. When the couple returned to live in Australia, they built a house called Mulberry Hill at Langwarrin South, on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located in the south of Greater Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to ...

, and lived there until the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

forced them to take more humble lodgings in Bacchus Marsh, renting out their home until the economic situation improved. Joan Lindsay left ''Mulberry Hill'' to the National Trust when she died in 1984.

Death

He died on Christmas Day 1976, in Mornington, Victoria, six days before his 87th birthday. He was survived by his wife. They had no children.Aiton, Douglas, "Death of the last of the famous Lindsay family of artists: Sir Daryl: A Man who loved Life", ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 28 December 1976), p.2.
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Publications

*
Back Stage with the Covent Garden Russian Ballet
' (Sydney: s.n., 1938?) *F. Philipp and J. Stewart, eds.,
In Honour of Daryl Lindsay: Essays and Studies
' (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1964) * ''The Leafy Tree: My Family'' (Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1965).

Notes

References

First World War Embarkation Roll: Driver Daryl Ernest Lindsay (10883), collection of the ''Australian War Museum''.

First World War Nominal Roll: Lieutenant Daryl Ernest Lindsay, collection of the ''Australian War Museum''.

First World War Service Record Lieutenant Daryl Ernest Lindsay, ''National Archives of Australia''.

External links

Lindsay's work
in the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

Daryl Lindsay, Papers, 1929-1976 (MS4864)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, Daryl 1890 births 1976 deaths Australian Knights Bachelor 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists People from Creswick, Victoria Artists from Victoria (state) Australian male painters Australian war artists Medical illustrators Australian military personnel of World War I Military personnel from Victoria (state) Australian people of English descent Australian people of Irish descent Lindsay family