Title

Christian Waller 1894-1954; The Lords of the Flame, 1932.

Author

Fowler-Thomason, Emma.

Source

Gray, Anne (ed.), Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 2002

Details

page 152.

Publication date

2002

Type

Article

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

The Lords of the Flames.

Christian Waller’s intensely creative energy and superb mastery of the printed medium suffuses The Lords of the Flame. It is the third in a sequence of seven images from the illustrated book, The Great Breath, widely acknowledged as Waller’s finest work and the most stunning example of art deco books produced in Australia. Waller’s interest in theosophy and the divine inspired her conception and depiction of the seven steps of spiritual evolution and development.

Waller also drew upon the experience of her travels in Europe in 1929–30 where her inspiration came from ancient Greek and Egyptian imagery, the new art deco style and her study of stained glass, on which she solely focused her later career. The Lords of the Flame is imbued with Waller’s own system of esoteric code, astrological references and numerological interpretation. It displays identifiable symbols, such as the astrological sign for Aries in the top right corner and the six-pointed stars of the theosophists, yet also conceals many complex symbols only accessible to the initiated. Its mystic quality is further enhanced by the luminosity of black ink on translucent paper.

The sleek, vertical black-and-white composition of Waller’s workcharacterises the art deco style. Elongated sinuous flames emphasise the descent of the Lords through a dark void, as they levitate on flaming discs like a divine vision. These formidable figures are both compelling and inspirational. They have a god-like presence, proudly delivering divine flames to earth and, with it, their message of spiritual evolution.

Emma Fowler-Thomason

Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010
From: Anne Gray (ed), Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002