B. 1896 – 1984

Joan Lindsay was born into one prominent artistic dynasty, the Boyds, and married into another, the Lindsays with her husband Sir Daryl Lindsay serving as Director of the National Gallery of Victoria between 1942 and 1956. 

Lindsay began her creative career as a watercolorist, studying under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery of Victoria School. It was as a writer however, that she found most notoriety, penning the iconic 1967 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock. An allegory for the loss of cultural innocence, Picnic at Hanging Rock tells the story of a group of student's disappearance in the bush on Valentine’s Day, 1900. It was written in only four weeks at Lindsay’s home, Mulberry Hill, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. 

Lindsay maintained her fine art practice across her lifetime, producing elegant and enigmatic imagery. Whether as a writer or painter, her lens of perception was distinct and compelling. 

To read a more in-depth biography of the artist, click here.