Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay, painter, printmaker, journalist, author, cartoonist, illustrator, and art historian, was born on 17 October 1874 in Creswick, Australia. He was the brother of artist Norman Lindsay and the artist and critic Daryl Lindsay. At first it was thought that his passion for astronomy set his career path so at fifteen years of age his grandfather sent him to Melbourne where he was a student assistant to Pietro Baracchi at the Melbourne Observatory. As the young pupil became more and more enamored with art, Baracchi suggested he find another path. At the age of sixteen years old, Lindsay was offered work as an illustrator for the publication Hawk.

Lindsay studied at the Melbourne School of Art and later taught himself the techniques of etching guided by P.G. Hammerton’s Etching and Etchers. His first etchings were published in 1907 and they were featured in an exhibition that year at the Society of Artists in Sydney. He eventually produced over 600 intaglios of Austrian and European subjects. Lindsay also worked in woodcut and woodengraving and is considered by some to be the first to revive the woodcut in Australia.

Lindsay first exhibited in London in 1923. Before leaving to tour Europe in 1926, an exhibition of woodcuts and etchings was held at the MacQuaris Galleries in Sydney. His travels took him to Italy, England, Spain, and Germany and he produced sixty-seven etchings, drypoints, and woodengravings which were part of a very successful exhibition at Colnaghi Art Gallery on Bond Street in London the following year.

He was active in the Society of Artists for two decades and served as president for three years of the Australian Printer-Etchers’ Society when it was formed in 1921. He was a long-serving Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1941, Lionel Lindsay was knighted for his services to Australian art. Lindsay’s work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia and the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the British Museum, London; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Lionel Lindsay Art Gallery and Library, Toowoombia; and the National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.

Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay died on 22 May 1961 in Melbourne, Australia.