Sidney Nolan 'Hummingbird and Flower' c.1982
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Humming bird and flower c.1982
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m274
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 46
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
During his travels in Australia, Africa, Antarctica and also China, Sidney Nolan created several paintings and drawings of animals in their natural habitat. About animals and his desire to depict them, Nolan commented:
“I feel like there’s a painting to be done with animals and natural camouflage that would be, in a sense, a no-painting; there would be a total disappearance of the image – but if you stared at it long enough the image would eventually waft up.” (Missingham, 1967)
Birds, and particularly Australian native birds, featured prominently in Nolan’s Australian desert landscapes during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The fact that he returned to this subject during the 1980s, when he was living semi-permanently in England, attests to his fascination with Australian birds. Hummingbird and Flower is distinctly different from Nolan’s earlier representations of birds. Here the bird appears more lifelike and is shown close-up against a white background. In many of Nolan’s earlier images, including Desert bird (1948) and Desert thorn (1953), the birds resemble mythical creatures which are airborne (often upside down) and they form an integral part of the landscape. In these two paintings the bird rather than its environment is the centre of attention.
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Humming bird and flower c.1982
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m274
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 46
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
During his travels in Australia, Africa, Antarctica and also China, Sidney Nolan created several paintings and drawings of animals in their natural habitat. About animals and his desire to depict them, Nolan commented:
“I feel like there’s a painting to be done with animals and natural camouflage that would be, in a sense, a no-painting; there would be a total disappearance of the image – but if you stared at it long enough the image would eventually waft up.” (Missingham, 1967)
Birds, and particularly Australian native birds, featured prominently in Nolan’s Australian desert landscapes during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The fact that he returned to this subject during the 1980s, when he was living semi-permanently in England, attests to his fascination with Australian birds. Hummingbird and Flower is distinctly different from Nolan’s earlier representations of birds. Here the bird appears more lifelike and is shown close-up against a white background. In many of Nolan’s earlier images, including Desert bird (1948) and Desert thorn (1953), the birds resemble mythical creatures which are airborne (often upside down) and they form an integral part of the landscape. In these two paintings the bird rather than its environment is the centre of attention.
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.
Sir Sidney Nolan OM, AC, CBE, RA (Australian 1917-1992)
Humming bird and flower c.1982
Mixed media on paper
30.4 x 25.3cm (sheet size)
Provenance:
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, Paintings & Watercolours sale, 9 December 2020, lot m274
Private Collection U.K.
Christie's, London, Modern and Contemporary Australian and South African Art, 16 December 2008, lot 46
Private Collection U.K.
© The Sidney Nolan Trust
During his travels in Australia, Africa, Antarctica and also China, Sidney Nolan created several paintings and drawings of animals in their natural habitat. About animals and his desire to depict them, Nolan commented:
“I feel like there’s a painting to be done with animals and natural camouflage that would be, in a sense, a no-painting; there would be a total disappearance of the image – but if you stared at it long enough the image would eventually waft up.” (Missingham, 1967)
Birds, and particularly Australian native birds, featured prominently in Nolan’s Australian desert landscapes during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The fact that he returned to this subject during the 1980s, when he was living semi-permanently in England, attests to his fascination with Australian birds. Hummingbird and Flower is distinctly different from Nolan’s earlier representations of birds. Here the bird appears more lifelike and is shown close-up against a white background. In many of Nolan’s earlier images, including Desert bird (1948) and Desert thorn (1953), the birds resemble mythical creatures which are airborne (often upside down) and they form an integral part of the landscape. In these two paintings the bird rather than its environment is the centre of attention.
Nolan's small flower paintings executed in 1968 were the genesis for his most ambitious works. They were inspired by a visit to central Australia where he saw “flowers springing up […] after they had lain dormant in the sand for twenty years.” “The pitiless wasteland” he recalled “throws up this extraordinary garden -- like the Paradise Gardens of the Islamic peoples.” “Like Milton” he said “I would like to inhabit Paradise.” The series began with Flowers (1968) and Wildflowers (1970), the former constituting 58 panels, each composed of 6 individually framed sheets, making a total of 348 separate paintings.
These predate Nolan’s most ambitious sequences: Paradise Garden (1968-70), Snake (1970-72) and Shark (1972-73), known collectively as Oceania. In total Oceania comprises around 4,000 images each executed on white kaolin-coated gloss paper using a variety of media, including wax crayon, coloured dyes, Ripolin, oil and acrylic and a quick-drying gel. All three monumental works were exhibited together in Nolan's retrospective exhibition at the Royal Society, Dublin in 1973. A selection of images from Paradise Garden is also included in Nolan’s artist book Paradise Garden (1971) in which the images are accompanied by his poems responding to the complicated relationship with his early patrons, John and Sunday Reed.
Make it stand out
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business.
Build it
Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world.
