[Washing up]

Depicts Indian man Chunder Loo and his friends, the Australian koala and the British fox terrier, cleaning up after fighting in the trenches. Because the work was created for publication in a magazine, Lindsay has used simple diagonal hatching with a crayon for shading, and pen and ink to clearly delineate the subjects. A biplane hovers the above the scene. Jovial cigarette smoking French soldiers hover behind Chunder and his friends. They are either admiring the clean habits of Britain and its colonial subjects, or are laughing at them. In the background is an army camp, and a small town. Chunder and his friends are revealed to be quite resourceful, using a variety of camp objects, such as an ammunition box and a jam jar, to assist them with their ablutions.

This drawing is part of a series drawn by Lionel Lindsay, and occasionally Norman, to advertise Cobra boot polish in The Bulletin during the period from 1914 - 1919.



Lionel Lindsay, painter, printmaker, writer and critic, was a member of the famous artistic Lindsay family. He commenced his career in the then popular field of magazine illustration, having taught himself how to draw from Punch and other illustrated periodicals.

He and his brother Norman Lindsay produced drawings for the Chunder Loo series, from 1909 to 1920. Lindsay, however was the main contributor, and produced hundreds of them throughout the war on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

This style of this series has been described as the ‘central Lindsay manner’, as the Lindsay’s developed an illustrative style that made their work interchangeable. The ‘plague of Lindsays’, as one journalist dubbed the phenomenon, produced work that was humorous and dynamic. Chunder Loo was especially beloved by children, and Lionel was informed that parents often bought The Bulletin solely for their children to see what Chunder was doing. It has been described, along with Norman’s cartoons, as Australian folk art.