[Fun in the trenches]

Depicts a scene in a trench in an unspecified battle ground in Europe. Indian gentleman, Chunder Loo, is wearing either a Sikh turban called a dastaar, or a Hindu turban. Often Chunder is depicted by Lindsay without his turban, an act that would be considered to be blasphemous amongst Sikhs. He is assisting his friend Bear and Dog to play a joke on German snipers. Bear and Chunder are holding up a pole upon which a dummy, dressed in German clothes and helmet, is drawing fire from the enemy. Dog surveys the scene from a periscope, while French soldiers, also in the trenches, fire at the Germans.

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.

verso: the advertising jingle written by Ernest O'Ferrall to accompany the drawing has been inscribed.

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.