Footnotes

PROVENANCE
The Matthieson Gallery, London (label attached verso)
Mr and Mrs Rory McEwen, London, acquired from the above in 1960
Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1964, lot 188
Marlborough Fine Art, London (label attached verso)
Private collection, Melbourne
Gould Galleries, Sydney
Private collection, United Kingdom, acquired from the above in 2000
Bonhams, Sydney, 20 June 2018, lot 10
Private collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED
Leda and the Swan and Other Recent Works: Sidney Nolan, The Matthieson Gallery, London, 16 June – 16 July, 1960, cat. 25
The Angry Penguins: An Exhibition of Highly Important Works by Boyd, Nolan, Perceval, Tucker, Gould Galleries, Melbourne, 14 March – 20 April 1997, cat. 3 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
Sidney Nolan: Myth Rider, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 4 December 2021 – 6 March 2022, cat. 11

LITERATURE
Kenneth Clark, Colin McInnes and Bryan Robertson, Sidney Nolan, Thames and Hudson, London, 1961, pl. 102 (illus.)
Anthony Fitzpatrick et al, Sidney Nolan: Myth Rider, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, p. 87 (illus.), p. 138


In 1958, Sidney Nolan was awarded the Harkness Fellowship which allowed him and his wife Cynthia to reside in the United States of America from June 1958 until April 1960. Prior to 1961, the prestigious award was granted to outstanding university graduates from former British colonies to undertake advanced studies in the United States. It is unknown how Nolan managed to receive the grant as he did not meet the criteria, however no doubt his charm and powerful connections had played an integral part in his approval.

'In the course of the Harkness Fellowship, Nolan settled in New York and began a series on Leda and the Swan, which he had touched on momentarily as far back as 1945. In spite of his relentless mobility and the major distraction of Cynthia's hospitalisation for six months in New York for suspected tuberculosis, he somehow found time to produce a large number of works. Following the same dark key as the Mrs Fraser swamp images and using wiped back polyvinyl acetate to allow white grounds to gleam through, Nolan utilized the subtle tones he had observed on the figure of his daughter Jinx swimming in the Thames, aiming for an emphatic 'Englishness' in his palette'.1

His wife, Cynthia, recorded the process: 'During the day he painted on the floor, first placing areas of colour on prepared board, next sweeping on polyvinyl acetate until the whole 4 x 5 feet area was thick with paint, then seizing a short-handled squeegee and slashing and wiping, cornering and circling like a skater, until another painting was completed — Now over and over again, he was painting Leda and the Swan.'2

In 1960, Nolan returned to London and exhibited a large number of his Leda paintings at the Matthieson Gallery. Leda and Swan, the present work, hails from this prestigious exhibition. Originally purchased by Rory McEwen, a key figure in the London social scene in the 1960s and noted artist and musician in his own right. The exhibition was considered a sensation and included other notable purchasers such as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Sir Kenneth Clark, Sir Charles and Lady Snow, the Earl of Drogheda, Agatha Christie and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

1. Barry Pearce, Sidney Nolan 1917–1992, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2007, p. 50
2. Cynthia Nolan, Open Negative - an American Memoir, Macmillan, London, 1967, p. 224