Footnotes

PROVENANCE
The Roundhill Academy, Leicester
Private collection, United Kingdom


For Sidney Nolan the early to mid 1950s is synonymous for his second series of the infamous Victorian outlaw, Ned Kelly, and his interpretation of the arid central Australian outback - nowadays these subjects often overshadowing his smaller bodies of work. Similar to his Kelly motif, Nolan's flowers became a re-occurring subject throughout his career, peaking with his Paradise Garden, 1968-70, one of Nolan's most ambitious floral explorations culminating in 1336 individual floral studies combining to make the one installation.

Whilst travelling around Australia on a number of exploratory trips to the great interior and along the Eastern coast, Nolan had made various sketch studies of the plant life of the different regions. Along with the multitude of drawings he also made photographic records of the country and its flora, returning again and again to these important accounts as the source of relaying the essence of the Australia he wanted to describe. 'But this is no mere botanical travelogue. Rather it is an obsessive dialogue with floral form and the density and variety of colour it produces.'1 Nolan commented 'I saw the flowers springing up in Central Australia after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years. The pitiless wasteland throws up this extraordinary garden'.2

By 1955, Nolan had established his life in London, never to return to Australia to live again. No matter where he painted or what subject matter he explored, some form of connection with the Australian landscape was not too far away, his time abroad spent paying homage to his Australian subjects. The physical distance strengthening his memory to offer a deeper connection.

Alex Clark

1. T.G. Rosenthal, Sidney Nolan, Thames & Hudson, London, 2002, p. 211
2. Op. cit., p. 207