Thieves’ kitchen

Created 1929. Etching, engraving, and soft ground, 253 x 304 mm, signed and dated lower right, edition 25 of 55 copies, in a vintage black timber frame.

An etching by Norman Lindsay with enormous visual power, being a rollicking response to the poem Thieves’ kitchen written by Kenneth Slessor (copied in full below), first published in Poetry in Australia (1923) and also published in the author’s first book of verse Thief of the moon, (1924) which was illustrated with three original woodblocks by Norman Lindsay. As described by Lin Bloomfield, Norman created both etched and painted versions of the same scene: ‘The visual impact of the pictures reflect the mood of the poem and both admirably evoke the atmosphere. The cauldron fumes lighting the scene are forcefully portrayed, as are the goblets of thick ale. The drunken rogues and easy maids are obviously enjoying the revelry before their inevitable death on the gallows’ (Bloomfield, p. 161).

‘GOOD roaring pistol-boys, brave lads of gold,
Good roistering easy maids, blown cock-a-hoop
On floods of tavern-steam, I greet you! Drunk
With wild Canary, drowned in wines of old,
I’ll swear your round, red faces dive and swim
Like clouds of fire-fish in a waxen tide,
And these are seas of smoke we thieves behold.
Yet I’ve a mind I know what arms enchain
With flesh my shoulders . . . aye, and what warm legs
Wind quickly into mine . . . ’tis no pale mermaid,
No water-wench that floats in a smoky main
Betwixt the tankard and my knees . . . in faith,
I know thee, Joan, and by the beard of God,
I’ll prove to-night thy mortal parts again!
Leap, leap, fair vagabonds, your lives are short . . .
Dance firelit in your cauldron-fumes, O thieves,
Ram full your bellies with spiced food, gulp deep
Those goblets of thick ale—yea, feast and sport,
Ye Cyprian maids—lie with great, drunken rogues,
Jump by the fire—soon, soon your flesh must crawl
And Tyburn flap with birds, long-necked and swart!

Reference:

BLOOMFIELD, Lin. The complete etchings of Norman Lindsay. Sydney: Odana Editions, 1998, p. 158; 160-161; 324 (illustrated).

Bloomfield 312

Collections (other examples)

National Gallery of Victoria

Bendigo Art Gallery

Hamilton Art Gallery

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Queensland Art Gallery

State Library of New South Wales

Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum