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Lot Essay
Sidney Nolan first visited the Australian interior in 1948. The experience would have a transformative impact on the artist, imbuing him with a new vision of the landscape as well as a confidence in painting that he had never before experienced.
Nolan and his wife Cynthia moved to London in 1955, and the city proved an ideal base for travels to Egypt, Greece, Africa and Antarctica. However, the pull of his homeland remained strong, with frequent return visits and, eventually, in 1968, an extended stay in Australia that reinforced the centrality of the Australian landscape to his vision. In fact, Nolan would identify himself as brother to the land, a closeness that would change but not diminish over the following years as more and more of his life was spent away from his native Australia.
"I suppose this is the one landscape in the world I understand fully - I still find it beautiful, just as if I had seen it yesterday & not five years ago. I find it more than beautiful. I get a tremendous source of energy from it. We all have totems, apparently this landscape is mine." (S. Nolan in G. Smith, Sidney Nolan, Melbourne, 2003, p. 127).
This 1968 Landscape bears the hallmarks of Nolan's recollection of his 1948 travels into the Australian desert, which were still fresh within his memory. Swathes of russet red and brown, highlighted by patches of creamy white, delineate the vast spaces of the inland desert. Fine yet hardy trees punctuate the landscape, leading the eye through the image to the distant horizon. Nolan observed the slight curve of the earth that became apparent flying over the outback, and here translates this onto canvas at the outer corners of the image, sweeping down to the deep blue of the sea or sky.
Nolan himself observed of the dry centre that "The rivers, which wind visible for hundreds of miles, are all dry and wind as patterns of dry white sand marked by dark lines of trees. In thousands of square miles there is not one visible pool of water. Only sand & colour. In spite of this there is no brutality in the land, it is too old. Gentle unless you tried to walk across it." (S. Nolan in G. Smith, op.cit., p.51).
In Landscape, Nolan has, however, assimilated lessons in artistic practice learnt over the 20 years intervening, as well as the experience of living away from Australia for an extended period of time. As he would observe, "I've changed The young-thing that one paints out of, when one's energy is directed to altering and shaping the world around one, that has changed. Now I know that in future the world around, life, experience, whatever it is, will shape my paintings." (S. Nolan in J. Clark, Sidney Nolan, Melbourne, 1987, p.115).
Nolan's Landscape translates the vision of an artist into the memory of a dreamtime, a translucent light, awash with the colour of the Australian interior.
Nolan and his wife Cynthia moved to London in 1955, and the city proved an ideal base for travels to Egypt, Greece, Africa and Antarctica. However, the pull of his homeland remained strong, with frequent return visits and, eventually, in 1968, an extended stay in Australia that reinforced the centrality of the Australian landscape to his vision. In fact, Nolan would identify himself as brother to the land, a closeness that would change but not diminish over the following years as more and more of his life was spent away from his native Australia.
"I suppose this is the one landscape in the world I understand fully - I still find it beautiful, just as if I had seen it yesterday & not five years ago. I find it more than beautiful. I get a tremendous source of energy from it. We all have totems, apparently this landscape is mine." (S. Nolan in G. Smith, Sidney Nolan, Melbourne, 2003, p. 127).
This 1968 Landscape bears the hallmarks of Nolan's recollection of his 1948 travels into the Australian desert, which were still fresh within his memory. Swathes of russet red and brown, highlighted by patches of creamy white, delineate the vast spaces of the inland desert. Fine yet hardy trees punctuate the landscape, leading the eye through the image to the distant horizon. Nolan observed the slight curve of the earth that became apparent flying over the outback, and here translates this onto canvas at the outer corners of the image, sweeping down to the deep blue of the sea or sky.
Nolan himself observed of the dry centre that "The rivers, which wind visible for hundreds of miles, are all dry and wind as patterns of dry white sand marked by dark lines of trees. In thousands of square miles there is not one visible pool of water. Only sand & colour. In spite of this there is no brutality in the land, it is too old. Gentle unless you tried to walk across it." (S. Nolan in G. Smith, op.cit., p.51).
In Landscape, Nolan has, however, assimilated lessons in artistic practice learnt over the 20 years intervening, as well as the experience of living away from Australia for an extended period of time. As he would observe, "I've changed The young-thing that one paints out of, when one's energy is directed to altering and shaping the world around one, that has changed. Now I know that in future the world around, life, experience, whatever it is, will shape my paintings." (S. Nolan in J. Clark, Sidney Nolan, Melbourne, 1987, p.115).
Nolan's Landscape translates the vision of an artist into the memory of a dreamtime, a translucent light, awash with the colour of the Australian interior.