Gavin Fry wrote in 1983, "Sidney Nolan has described Gallipoli as 'the great modern Australian legend, the nearest thing to a deeply felt common religious experience shared by Australians - even today'. Nolan first heard the story (of Gallipoli) from family members who had fought in the First World War. As he grew older more understanding of the conflict came, as too did an awareness of the myths which were soon to grow up around the Anzacs." (G Fry, Nolan's Gallipoli, Melbourne, 1983, p.8.)
It has been widely commented that Nolan's Gallipoli paintings are among the strongest most resolved of his work. "They have a coherent adventurousness coupled with an understanding of the deep roots of the place, and the people who fought and died there, which imbue the best of the pictures with a universal resonance." (T Rosenthal Sidney Nolan, London, 2002, p.171)