Design and Art Australia Online

Peter Hammon Lindsay, landscape painter, cartoonist and commercial artist, was born at 22 Falmouth Street, Hawthorn, Victoria on 6 April 1908. He was the only child of artist, Percy Lindsay and Jessie née Hammon.

Peter H. Lindsay spent his early years in Melbourne, but just before the end of hostilities in 1918 his parents moved to Shirley Road, Roseville, a suburb on the northern fringes of Sydney. One of the earliest images made by the artist was a series of unusual photographs of his father (and occasionally his mother) modelling in dramatic poses in the back garden of their new Roseville home. This set of photographs (now in the collection of the National Library of Australia) seems to have been conceived as a visual aid for his father’s commercial illustrations.

The early death of his mother to tuberculosis in 1924 left Peter spending the rest of his adolescence and early adulthood living with his eccentric father. Peter’s uncle, Sir Daryl Lindsay, writing in his 1965 memoir (The Leafy Tree), commented on the close bond between the pair:

“When his wife died he and his son, Peter, lived on together on the North Shore. They were devoted to each other, went everywhere together, called each other Joe and were more like a couple of old bachelors than father and son.”

According to the artist’s friend, Mollie Flaxman, Peter gravitated into the world of art because of the 'strong and steady influence’ of his father. He initially received artistic training from Percy and later more formally at the J.S. Watkins Art School, in Pitt Street, Sydney, an institution which specialised in training students in commercial art. By the late 1920s Peter had joined the staff of the Sydney printing firm Pratten Brothers where he worked as their art director for 38 years.

From January 1929, Peter, then aged in his early twenties, began to contribute cartoons to the popular magazine, Aussie: The Cheerful Monthly. He contributed about 25 joke blocks for Aussie and also had 24 images published in the Bulletin. He also contributed several joke blocks to the Australian Women’s Weekly. In a 1992 letter to the cartoon historian, Vane Lindesay, Peter disclosed that he had once been involved with the Black and White Artists’ Club when it was revived by Jim Russell in the late 1930s.

Peter’s cartooning approach was very similar to his father’s late style and it is possible that Peter occasionally 'ghosted’ for Percy in the Bulletin. A typical Peter H. Lindsay joke block (published in the January 1931 issue of Aussie) depicts an indignant man standing in a court witness box.“Justice! Justice! I demand justice” [says the prisoner thrusting his hand in the air]. The bald judge replies, “Silence! Do you forget that you are in a court of law?”

In 1935 Peter and his father relocated from the family home in Roseville to rented accommodation in Milson’s Point, Sydney. In 1938 Peter married Edith Olga (Wendy) Woolfrey and the couple moved to their own place at 28 Hamden Street, North Sydney.

In March 1942, Peter, now aged in his mid thirties, enlisted in the armed services. As an Australian Army soldier he served in New Guinea, Tarakan and Borneo. Although not employed as an official war artist, gunner Lindsay continued to pursue his art while on active service, and several of his works from this time have war themes.

After the death of Percy in 1952, Peter became the principal champion of his father’s artistic reputation. He took an important role in the organisation of the Percy Lindsay survey exhibition at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery (BFAG) in 1975, and according to the then BFAG director (and show curator), Ron Radford, Peter, was 'a very nice, quietly spoken man who was very well mannered’ and 'was a delight to deal with.’ Before and after his father’s 1975 exhibition, Peter made significant donations of Percy Lindsay artworks and ephemeral material to the Ballarat collection helping it become one of the largest depositories of Lindsay family artwork in the country.

Peter painted mainly oils and watercolours, but also produced several prints, including one etching depicting a European townscape. From 1933 he began to occasionally exhibit his landscapes at the annual exhibitions of the Australian Watercolour Institute. He became an exhibiting member of the Royal Art Society [RAS] of New South Wales in 1950 and was later awarded a Fellowship (FRAS) by the RAS. Like Percy he produced mainly small landscapes although Peter’s later oils were higher in key than his father’s Barbizon influenced images.

After his wife died in 1969, Peter lived for many years in Chatswood, Sydney. After retiring from Pratten Brothers in the early 1970s he spent many years travelling and painting around Australia and he is believed to have visited Europe. He occasionally visited his family’s work at Ballarat, sometimes in the company of his late life companion, Doreen Hubble, a former model to (Peter’s uncle) Norman Lindsay and Grace Crowley.

A member of the well known Lindsay family of artists, Peter H. Lindsay is sometimes confused with his (non-art producing) journalist cousin, Peter Lindsay (1907-1998), who was the elder child of Sir Lionel Lindsay and Jean née Dyson. Peter H. Lindsay died (childless) at the age of 90, on Wednesday 19 August 1998. A short obituary in the Royal Art Society newsletter was written by his fellow artist Mollie Flaxman.

Writers:

Clifford-Smith, SilasNote:

Date written:

2007

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed