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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Sir Sidney Nolan Works from the Estate of Lady Nolan, Part III
• Sale Date:
  24 Nov 2020 ~ 6pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  27
• Lot Description:
  Sidney Nolan
  (1917 - 1992)
  Selby, 1937
  oil on board
  20.0 x 23.0cm (7 7/8 x 9 1/16in).
  dated and inscribed verso: 'No. 1 / first landscape / 1938 / 1937'
• Provenance:
  Sir Sidney Nolan, United Kingdom, until 1992; Lady Nolan, United Kingdom, until 2016; The Estate of Lady Nolan, United Kingdom
• Exhibited:
  Sidney Nolan: Retrospective Exhibition, Paintings from 1937 to 1967, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 September - 29 October 1967; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 22 November – 17 December 1967; Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 9 January – 4 February 1968, cat. 1 (label attached verso); A Memorial Exhibition of The Paintings of Sidney Nolan, The Rodd, Presteigne, United Kingdom, 1993
• References:
  Brian Adams, Sidney Nolan: Such is Life, a Biography, Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1987, pp 22-26, illus. ; Richard Haese, Modern Australian Art, New York, 1982, pp. 94-95
• Notes:
  In 1967 when Nolan and Hall Missingham, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, were planning the artist's first Australian retrospective, they selected this painting, Selby, 1937, as the beginning of the story. The painting was the first in the catalogue and the only work included from that year. Nolan had painted two or three landscapes in the Kiewa Valley a few months earlier, but these were relatively conventional studies.1 Selby, however, was an audacious step, its geometric construction reminiscent of Paul Klee and other European contemporaries. Justifiably, Nolan chose this work to mark the starting point of his career as a modern painter. In private, Nolan may also have been remembering and laughing at the events that led to Selby being painted. The full story is wonderfully told in Brian Adams' biography. In 1937, frustrated by a lack of money to move overseas Nolan and his artist friend Howard Matthews decided instead to use the little they had to go bush near Selby, east of Melbourne, in what was then isolated country. Taking culinary advice from Matthews' sister they packed jars of pickled tripe and a healthy supply of madeira wine. The short trip had its adventures. Nolan brandished his rabbiting gun at a waiter and later at the shopkeeper who had the keys to the cottage. Once established there, Nolan had a fruitful period of painting and reading. Their most celebrated visitor was the artist Rupert Bunny, now elderly, who had spent his career in France. Bunny's visit had an inauspicious start as he and Noel Birnbaum, the young art student who drove him there, both fell in a ditch on the way. After their arrival late that night, Bunny's stories of painting in Europe reinforced Nolan's view that he must do anything he could to leave Australia. Meanwhile Birnbaum and Matthews had an argument that once again involved the rifle. After a few weeks of tripe and the madeira emptied, Nolan returned to Melbourne.2 1. Jane Clark, Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and Legends, ICCA, Sydney, 1987, p.33; 2. Brian Adams, Sidney Nolan: Such is Life, a Biography, Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1987, pp. 22-26
• Estimate:
  A$30,000 - 40,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.