28. SIDNEY NOLAN

Sidney Nolan is well known for depictions of the history and mythology of Australian life through an extended series of explorers such as Burke and Wills, Leichhardt, and Shackleton, and the bushranger Ned Kelly. Gallipoli, the famously ill-fated attempt to invade Turkey by Australian and New Zealand forces in 1915, is widely acknowledged as a key moment in Australian history and a subject that fascinated Nolan. He painted many images of Allied soldiers who fought at Gallipoli wide-eyed but invariably crestfallen that have become ingrained into the collective imagination.

Nolan was an inveterate reader and researcher. Before he began each new series of paintings, he would immerse himself in profuse amounts of literature, music, and images relevant to each story or event. Much of this information was committed to memory and then relegated to the background as Nolan set about building signature images out of many and varied sources.  

Gallipoli General c1959 takes a new but unexpected look at the mythology of the Anzac. Instead of Nolan depicting rank-and-file infantry or someone from the Light Horse Brigade, he presents a rare example of a soldier of rank. The General appears based on a contemporary likeness to Australian career soldier Thomas Albert Blamey (18841951), who was among the first party to arrive at Gallipoli. Blamey participated in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and served as a staff officer during the campaign. He distinguished himself by leading a daring reconnaissance raid and subsequently rose to the rank of Brigadier General over the course of the World War I.

Our painting is possibly a composite image that appears based upon photographs of Blamey that were widely-circulated at the time; particularly the image of Blamey in Belgium, March 1919 in contemporary uniform,¹ along with other images that show Blamey, the campaign soldier, older and battle-hardened. Nolan depicts his general in a uniform of suitably high rank. The generals bushy moustache is rendered a ghostly white by Nolan as an index of his age and the passing of time. Moreover, the palette is a mixture of lemon yellow and desert sand, impregnated into the weave of the hat and jacket. To contrast this, the background hue is made from what Cynthia Nolan referred to as Nolans experiment with three magnificent blues; an amorphous, transparent blue-green, reminiscent of the waters of Gallipoli from which a young sad face would shine palely out.²

Gallipoli General is a fine example that comes with outstanding provenance, as well as an exemplary exhibition history. It was once owned by the noted Nolan collector Lord McAlpine of West Green who bought it directly from the artist, and has since been held by the late Sydney art dealer, Eva Breuer. The painting featured alongside two others from the Gallipoli series in the important National Gallery of Victoria retrospective exhibition that toured to Australian state galleries between 1987-88.

 

Footnotes:

1. An Outdoors Portrait of Brigadier General T Blamey CMG DSO, of Australian Corps Headquarters. March 1919, Australian War Memorial collection, Canberra [accessed online via Wikimedia Commons, February 2023]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Blamey

2. Cynthia Nolan, quoted in Clark, J., Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and Legends, International Cultural Corporation of Australia Limited, Sydney, 1987, p.130

 

Rodney James

Rodney James is an independent art consultant who specialises in valuations, collection management, exhibitions, research and writing, and strategic planning for art galleries and museums.