Lot 23

NOLAN TO 1960 WITH A CHRONOLOGY FOR LOTS 23-53, 1940-1960 1917 born North Carlton, Melbourne to Sidney Henry, a selector at Nagambie, northern Victoria and former policeman, and Dora Irene (née Sutherland). 1918-27 grows up in St Kilda - father tramways employee and later publican. 1928-31 Brighton Technical College - family move close to Luna Park and St Kilda beach. 1932 Aged 14, enrols in art course at Prahan Technical College, studies under Dargie, employment in various commercial art studios, produces illuminated signs, using glass, transparent enamels and tinfoil. 1933-37 employed by the art department of Fayrefield Hats, Abbotsford - uses spray gun and dyes, working on advertisements and displays. Hobbies reading (including the French poets), cycling, swimming, and athletics. Attends night classes at NGV under Charles Wheeler and W. B. McInnes and reads widely at the Public Library. 1936 Shares studio on corner of Russell and Lonsdale Streets with John Sinclair, Arthur Daniels, and Laurence Pendlebury. Writes poetry. 1937 Intends to save to go overseas. Stows away on a ship bound for Europe but detected and landed at Queenscliff. 1938 marries Elizabeth Paterson, meets John and Sunday Reed, decides to become a full-time painter, foundation member of Contemporary Art Society. Works on red, yellow and blue paintings at Ocean Grove. 1939 exhibits Head of Rimbaud at inaugural CAS show at NGV. Works influenced by Klee, Miro, Masson and Ernst attract attention. 1940 designs for de Basil's production of Serge Lifar's Icare which has its Australian premiere at the Theatre Royal, Sydney on 16 February. First one man show in his studio opposite the Melbourne Museum, a condemned tenement at 325 Russell Street, opened by John Reed - the show features small abstracts, collages and transfer drawings [Lot 23]. His daughter Imelda born. 1941 produces works in oil and enamel on slate and glass illustrating Rilke, Blake and Dante; leaves Elizabeth and enters into a menage á trois at Heide. September exhibits at NSW CAS and in October in Melbourne 1942 divorces, moves to Heidelberg, conscripted into the Army in April, Private Nolan no. V206 559; 4 May-mid July labouring and guard duties at Dimboola in the Wimmera District. Promoted to lance-corporal; Returns to Dimboola October 1942 to mid-January 1943. Paints using Dulux paint and masonite. Sends chalk sketches of Wimmera to the Reeds, which are exhibited in shop window of Sheffield's Newsagency, Heidelberg (none sell) [Lot 24] 1943 Stationed at Nhill, Horsham and Ballarat. Starts using Ripolin enamel paint. Reed and Harris publish Angry Penguins. Third solo exhibition at CAS Studio, 527 Collins Street, Melbourne [catalogue page used as support of lot 25]. Loses parts of two fingers of left hand in an accident. 1944 Stationed back at Dimboola, then near Heidelburg. Hospitalised in June. Goes AWOL in July when under threat of active service in New Guinea. Lives under false identity at Heide and at the Loft, Parkville, with John Sinclair, Douglas Cairns and Max Harris. Shows five works at CAS, Sydney. Ern Malley issue of Angry Penguins. Shows Arabian Tree (inspired by 'Ern Malley') at CAS exhibition, Melbourne, September. [Lot 25] 1945 St Kilda and Luna Park pictures. First Kelly subject dates to 14 March. V-E Day. August CAS Melbourne. November CAS Sydney. Explores "Kelly Country" in north eastern Victoria with Max Harris and reads Keneally's The inner history of the Kelly Gang and the Royal Commission report on the Victorian police force. Begins work on Kelly pictures at Heide. Younger brother drowns at Cooktown, Queensland. 1946 1 March-18 May, first ripolin Kelly pictures painted at Heide (now in NGA). Kelly pictures, sketches and transfer drawings produced into mid-1947 [Lots 26-27]. Shows with Tucker and Boyd at CAS, University of Melbourne. 1947 Last Kelly subject dates to July 1947. Leaves the Reeds and Melbourne and takes his first flight to Queensland. Stays with Barrett Reid at Chermside. Reads The Shipwreck of the Stirling Castle (the story of Eliza Fraser) in the John Oxley Library, Brisbane. Exhibits in Brisbane and travels throughout Queensland, including the far north. Visits Fraser Island August-September. To Sydney after Christmas. Stays at Alannah Coleman's studio in Wooloomooloo. 1948 Visits John Reed's sister Cynthia Hansen and her daughter Jinx in Sydney. Paints Eliza Fraser pictures, and exhibits Fraser Island landscapes at Moreton Galleries, Brisbane. 25 March marries Cynthia and adopts the six-year-old Jinx. In April exhibits at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. The Reeds exhibit the Ned Kelly paintings at the Velasquez Gallery, Melbourne. Obtains dishonourable discharge. June-September travels with family in Central, far north and Western Australia. Designs and paints sets for Sydney University Dramatic Society production of Orphée and exhibits at CAS, Sydney. [Lots 28-29] 1949 Sir Kenneth Clark visits Nolan at Wahroonga. Exhibits Queensland paintings at David Jones, Sydney, and glass paintings of Eureka Stockade at Macquarie Galleries. Travels widely within Australia. Exhibits at CAS and Macquarie Galleries. Kelly pictures exhibited in Paris by the Reeds. 1950 Landscapes from the 1949 outback travels exhibited at David Jones, Sydney, March-April, mixed media works, including monotypes and paintings on glass exhibited at Macquarie Galleries, June-July, central Australian landscapes at Stanley Coe Galley, Melbourne, and Kelly pictures shown in Rome. Travels in Central Australia. Arrives in England on 18 September, lives with Cynthia's sister Margaret in Cambridge and starts travelling on the Continent (Spain, Portugal, Italy and France). 1951 Shows at the Redfern Gallery, London (central Australian landscapes) in January-February and the Tate Gallery buys Inland Australia. Visits Paris in June and sails for Australia in July, stopping en route at Naples (visits Pompey). Exhibits European works at Macquarie Galleries in October. At Wahroonga over Christmas and new year painting for the second Blake Prize for religious art [Lot 35] 1952 June-July travels to Darwin, then by diesel truck and light aircraft to Wave Hill Station and on Murranji-Barkly stock track to work on the commission by the Courier-Mail to paint a series on the Northern Territory drought. Sketches and photographs [Lot 32]. Exhibits in Brisbane, Sydney (with Donald Friend, drought works), Pittsburgh (Burke at Cooper's Creek) and London. December, accompanies John Heyer on the Birdsville Track filming Back of Beyond, sponsored by Shell. 1953 Exhibits drought paintings in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. University of WA buys twelve Queensland outback pictures. Included in Twelve Australian Artists, Arts Council touring exhibition which opens at Burlington House on 24 July. Travels in October to Italy and sees Picasso exhibition, including Guernica, in Milan. Rome, Paris and London in late November. 1954 Settles in London in a studio-flat at 55 Glebe Place, Chelsea. Drought drawings for Back of Beyond. Australian Commissioner for Australia at the Venice Biennale (with Dobell and Drysdale). Drought drawings exhibited alongside the screening of the film Back of Beyond at the Venice Film Festival. Travels via Turin and Apulia to southern Italy [Lot 34]. Returns to London and moves to Paddington. Works on second Kelly series and Crucifix series inspired by Italian travels. 1955 Exhibits Italian works at Macquarie Galleries in March, second Kelly and Italian subjects at the Redfern Gallery, London, MoMA, New York buys After Glenrowan. Visits Ireland in August and travels through Yugoslavia to the Greek island of Hydra to stay with George Johnston and Charmian Clift. Stays in Ghika's cliff-top house overlooking the Aegean [Lot 41] Reads Homer's Iliad, and meets Alan Moorehead who is writing Gallipoli on nearby Spetsae Island. 1956 Hydra, January-March [Lots 36-37, 41, 43]. Travels through Greece and Crete. Visits the Gallipoli peninsula in the spring. Mythological and Gallipoli subjects merge. First solo show in USA at Durlacher Bros, New York. Scholarship to study at the British School, Rome, May-June [Lots 39-40,42]. Returns to London in July via Naples and Venice [Lots 43,46]. Paris in September [Lot 47]. Exhibits Greek works at Macquarie Galleries in August and at Johnstone Gallery in November. To Australia via Greece, Turkey, India and Cambodia, sponsored by Qantas Airways. 1957 to Japan, Mexico and New York. To London in April to new home on the river at 61 Deodar Road, Putney. Works on Mrs Fraser and convict Bracefell series in PVA (pigment and glue) on large masonite boards. First large retrospective survey of his work at the Whitechapel Gallery in June (Sidney Nolan) which subsequently tours UK. To Greece in September-October. Paris in December to study etching with Hayter at Atelier 17. 1958 Paris until May [Lot 45] when he returns to London. Leaves for NY on two-year Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship in June. Tours America July-September, the travels the subject of Cynthia's Open Negative. Spender introduces him to Robert Lowell's poetry in LA [Lot 55], and meets Patrick White in Florida. Shows Mrs Fraser works in solo exhibition at Durlacher Bros [Lot 48]. Portraits of Gallipoli soldiers, and Leda and the Swan series begun, prompted by Alwyn Lee's poem and the swans on the Thames [Lots 49-50]. 1959 Travels in USA. Cynthia diagnosed with tuberculosis and ill for 6 months. Three works at Documenta II, Kassel, Germany. 1960 Returns to London on RMS Queen Mary, and works on Leda and the Swan series [Lots 52-53]. Shows 44 pictures, Leda series and Greek subjects, at the Matthiesen Gallery in June. VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan, O.M., R.A. (1917-1992)

Luna Park, November 1940

Details

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan, O.M., R.A. (1917-1992)
Luna Park, November 1940
inscribed and dated 'LUNA PARK. NOV 40' (lower right), signed and dated 'Nolan Nov. 1940' on the reverse
monotype with pen and ink on paper
4 7/8 x 7¾in. (12.4 x 19.2cm.)
with an untitled transfer drawing dated '1940' (possibly a design for the ballet Icare), on pink paper, unframed, 8¼ x 10¼in. (20.9 x 26cm.) (2)

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