A narrow street, Granada

item details

NameA narrow street, Granada

ProductionLionel Lindsay; artist; 1927

Classificationprints, drypoints, works on paper

Materialsink, paper

Materials Summarydrypoint

Techniquesdrypoint

DimensionsPlate: 129mm (width), 227mm (height)

Registration Number1965-0012-136

Credit lineGift of Mrs Harold Wright, 1965

Overview

A Narrow Street in Granada is a 1927 drypoint and etching print which depicts, as the title suggests, one end of a narrow street in Granada, Spain. Two veil-clad women emerge from the shadows of an archway. Above them some vines grow through the iron grates over the windows. A child stands in the shade and in the right foreground a man rides a pack-laden donkey in the direction of the archway.

This particular street was of interest to Lindsay because it was full of picturesque architectural detail. The curve of the archway is mirrored in the smaller arches and plaster decorations which surround the windows on the upper storeys of the house. These contrast with the straight lines of the roofs and window grates. The luscious flowering plants offer an organic complement to the clarity of the architecture. These details are illuminated through a careful combination of the methods of drypoint and etching.

Lindsay loved the traditions and exoticism of the Spanish provinces, and Granada was especially appealing to him, since its architecture is a combination of Spanish Moorish and Baroque styles which were especially enticing to an artist from monocultural early 20th-century Australia.

There are two impressions of this print in Te Papa's collection; this one was presented by the widow of Ilott's good friend, London art dealer Harold Wright, and the other came from his good friend Sir John Ilott, Wellington collector and philanthropist (1956-0001-11).

Sources:

David Maskill (ed.), Before Addled Art – The Graphic Art of Lionel Lindsay (Wellington: Adam Art Gallery, 2003).

Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art July 2018