Gallery secures Sidney Nolan rarity as extended closure approaches

THE Bendigo Art Gallery has announced the purchase of its first major work by artist Sidney Nolan (1917–1992), one of Australia’s most significant modernists known for his explorations of history, mythology and identity.

The acquisition of Soldier on the Beach, painted in a single day in 1962 on the largest single board used by Nolan, was made possible by a National Cultural Heritage Account grant of $425,000.

The painting has recently returned from overseas to join the collection and is considered to be of national significance both in scale and theme.

It’s now on public display for the first time in Australia and will also be a centrepiece of the gallery’s re-opening after a major redevelopment in 2028.

Bendigo Art Gallery curator Emma Busowsky describes the work.

“In loosely painted and expressive broad brush strokes, a wounded solitary figure is depicted in the immediate foreground, filling most of the picture, slumped in the shallows at the seashore,” she said.

“The sky behind him is painted in gentle shades of blue, grey and white, turning to lilac at the horizon.

“The soldier is painted in shades of translucent earthy brown, (the) same tones as the beach landscape behind him.”

Ms Busowsky said Nolan produced many series of urgently painted works with an enduring emotional resonance.

“His subjects include the fugitive bush ranger Ned Kelly, as well as the fated explorers Burke and Wills, and other archetypes of national heroes and anti-heroes,” she said.

Nolan was considered a central figure in what became known as the Heide School of modernist artists in Melbourne, centred around visionary patrons John and Sunday Reed’s sprawling property in Bulleen, now known as Heide Museum of Modern Art.

The group also included Albert Tucker, Joy Hester, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and Charles Blackman.