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Lot Essay
The history of Ned Kelly possesses many advantages ... In its own way it can perhaps be called one of our Australian myths. It is a story arising out of the bush and ending in the bush ...
Sidney Nolan, 1948
The second Kelly series was painted in the 1950s, after Nolan had moved to England. The works from this series are located at Glenrowan, the site of the final siege of the Kelly Gang before Kelly's eventual arrest. 'The pictorial invention in the new Kelly pictures was of a more abstract order and the second series also contained a greater number of visual metaphors. ... the new Kelly series referred to the Glenrowan landscape of the incidents themselves as in the original series; but references to Greek landscape were also included, as well as the drought sequence from Queensland, and other aspects of Nolan's work that had presented themselves in the intervening years.' (B. Robertson, Sidney Nolan, London, 1961, pp.46-47) The colour in the second series had also shifted from the bright and highly keyed colours of the 1940s pictures, to softer and more subtle tones as seen here in the present work.
The Redfern Gallery, London held an exhibition of the second Kelly series, alongside works from his Italian travels, in May 1955, and the show was well received by critics and public alike. Buyers of the exhibition included the Museum of Modern Art, New York, who purchased After Glenrowan Siege, 1955. While the present work is not believed to have been in the exhibition, it was sold at The Redfern Gallery during the exhibition and relates in tone and subject to the exhibited works. Unlike some of the other second series Kelly pictures which balance the landscape with the Kelly figure, here they are merged as one, with Nolan using the veranda posts to suggest the eyes and nose of Kelly. The merging of Kelly with the landscape in this second series of Kelly pictures is a distinct shift from the hard edged Kelly which dominates the action in the first series. It anticipates the recession of the figure into the landscape in the works painted in New York and London in the early 1960s, which climax in the great 'Riverbend' polyptychs of 1964-66.
Here, Nolan has ensured the powerful rebel presence of Kelly is still very much evident though, with his iconic black square helmet centred in the painting, staring back at the viewer.
Sidney Nolan, 1948
The second Kelly series was painted in the 1950s, after Nolan had moved to England. The works from this series are located at Glenrowan, the site of the final siege of the Kelly Gang before Kelly's eventual arrest. 'The pictorial invention in the new Kelly pictures was of a more abstract order and the second series also contained a greater number of visual metaphors. ... the new Kelly series referred to the Glenrowan landscape of the incidents themselves as in the original series; but references to Greek landscape were also included, as well as the drought sequence from Queensland, and other aspects of Nolan's work that had presented themselves in the intervening years.' (B. Robertson, Sidney Nolan, London, 1961, pp.46-47) The colour in the second series had also shifted from the bright and highly keyed colours of the 1940s pictures, to softer and more subtle tones as seen here in the present work.
The Redfern Gallery, London held an exhibition of the second Kelly series, alongside works from his Italian travels, in May 1955, and the show was well received by critics and public alike. Buyers of the exhibition included the Museum of Modern Art, New York, who purchased After Glenrowan Siege, 1955. While the present work is not believed to have been in the exhibition, it was sold at The Redfern Gallery during the exhibition and relates in tone and subject to the exhibited works. Unlike some of the other second series Kelly pictures which balance the landscape with the Kelly figure, here they are merged as one, with Nolan using the veranda posts to suggest the eyes and nose of Kelly. The merging of Kelly with the landscape in this second series of Kelly pictures is a distinct shift from the hard edged Kelly which dominates the action in the first series. It anticipates the recession of the figure into the landscape in the works painted in New York and London in the early 1960s, which climax in the great 'Riverbend' polyptychs of 1964-66.
Here, Nolan has ensured the powerful rebel presence of Kelly is still very much evident though, with his iconic black square helmet centred in the painting, staring back at the viewer.