Lot Essay
Nolan's series of drought paintings began in 1952 with a commission from the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane to make drawings of the devastated drought areas in the cattle country of Northern Queensland:
'The paintings and drawings of the carcasses of cattle left on the land by drought in Northern Queensland sustain the detached mood of the paintings of Central Australia. The absolute desolation of the scene and the fantastic contortions of the carcasses themselves, pulled up into weird shapes by the burning sun, are more than enough. Nolan's handling of the theme is extremely gentle and tender; the paintings have a soft sweetness which vitiates much of the agony of the subject. The range of colour passes through all the browns, and hues of pinkish red. The literalness of the artist's version of these events can be seen by comparing the photograph of an actual scene with the drawing and painting. Other photographs provide us with some idea of the macabre, corpse-littered landscape. The smooth, anonymous surface of the paintings, ripolin on board, and the gentle haze of heat which permeates them all, takes the sting out of the event. The paintings are poignant, but curiously unobjectionable, even for the faint-hearted: the violence and the horror have receded long since and we are left with the pathetic, mutely eloquent remains'. (B. Robertson in K. Clark, C. MacInnes, B. Robertson, Sidney Nolan, London, 1961, p. 104)
'The paintings and drawings of the carcasses of cattle left on the land by drought in Northern Queensland sustain the detached mood of the paintings of Central Australia. The absolute desolation of the scene and the fantastic contortions of the carcasses themselves, pulled up into weird shapes by the burning sun, are more than enough. Nolan's handling of the theme is extremely gentle and tender; the paintings have a soft sweetness which vitiates much of the agony of the subject. The range of colour passes through all the browns, and hues of pinkish red. The literalness of the artist's version of these events can be seen by comparing the photograph of an actual scene with the drawing and painting. Other photographs provide us with some idea of the macabre, corpse-littered landscape. The smooth, anonymous surface of the paintings, ripolin on board, and the gentle haze of heat which permeates them all, takes the sting out of the event. The paintings are poignant, but curiously unobjectionable, even for the faint-hearted: the violence and the horror have receded long since and we are left with the pathetic, mutely eloquent remains'. (B. Robertson in K. Clark, C. MacInnes, B. Robertson, Sidney Nolan, London, 1961, p. 104)