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Rare invitation by Norman Lindsay and John Campbell Longstaff for the Opening of the Parliament of the Commonwealth by his Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall and York, addressed to Mr. Mark Hammond. Mark John Hammond (1844-1908), gold-miner and politician. … Read Full Description
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Rare invitation by Norman Lindsay and John Campbell Longstaff for the Opening of the Parliament of the Commonwealth by his Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall and York, addressed to Mr. Mark Hammond. Mark John Hammond (1844-1908), gold-miner and politician. In 1868 he joined a mining company at Hill End and in 1872, as a partner of Beyers & Holtermann, his dispirited change in direction of a tunnel led to the discovery of the world’s greatest specimen of reef gold. In June 1873 he retired to Sydney with independent means. On 24 September 1878 he was elected an alderman of Ashfield municipality and mayor in 1882.
John Campbell Longstaff (1861-1941) and Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) designed the invitation together, to symbolise the strong connection between England and Australia. Britannia stands under an oak tree on the left, behind her the white cliffs of Dover fade into the distance. Above her, Justice sits within a golden aura illuminated by the Southern Cross. On the right, completing the triumvirate, the young unadorned Australia stands in a vast sheep paddock under a eucalypt tree. In her hand she holds a scroll entitled ‘The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia’. Along the lower edge of the invitation the coats of arms of the six newly federated states are flanked by those of Britain and the new Commonwealth of Australia. The invitation was important to Tom Roberts, not just as a souvenir of an historic event, but as a means for him to witness and later paint the large canvas of the ceremony itself.
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Sir John Campbell Longstaff (1861 - 1941)
Sir John Campbell Longstaff (1861-1941) was an Australian painter, war artist and a five-time winner of the Archibald Prize.
View other items by Sir John Campbell Longstaff
Norman Alfred William Lindsay (1879 - 1969)
Norman Alfred William Lindsay (1879-1969) was an Australian artist, etcher, sculptor, writer, art critic, novelist, cartoonist and amateur boxer. One of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his generation. Lindsay attracted both acclaim and controversy for his works, many of which infused the Australian landscape with erotic pagan elements and were deemed by his critics to be "anti-Christian, anti-social and degenerate". In 1895, Lindsay moved to Melbourne to work on a local magazine with his older brother Lionel. In 1901, he and Lionel joined the staff of the Sydney Bulletin magazine and review. His association there would last fifty years. Lindsay travelled to Europe in 1909 with Rose his wife following later. The Lindsays returned to Australia in 1911. His sumptuous nudes were highly controversial. In 1940, Lindsay took sixteen crates of paintings, drawings and etchings to the U.S. to protect them from the war. Unfortunately, they were discovered when the train they were on caught fire and were impounded and subsequently burned as pornography by American officials. The artist's older brother Lionel remembered Lindsay's reaction: "Don't worry, I'll do more."
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