Kelly at the River

Artist Sidney Nolan (1917 - 1992)

Date1964

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions105.5 x 120 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1984. © The Estate of Sidney Nolan.

Object number1685

DescriptionSidney Nolan sporadically attended the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne from 1934 and studied engraving and lithography under S.W. Hayter at the Atelier 17, Paris, in 1957. Just after the Second World War, he began his great sequence of paintings portraying the escapades of the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly, both the truth and the mythical aspects of the mischievous armoured man. Nolan's simplistic image of Kelly has become an icon for Modern Australia.

The depiction of Kelly's saga also gave the artist an excuse to paint the Australian landscape in a truly original manner, while at the same time allowing his views on universal themes such as injustice, love and betrayal to be voiced. The relationship between humankind and the environment is a key concern throughout the series. In this painting Kelly is a lone figure standing on the banks of a river in a vast sun-scorched and desolate landscape. An outlaw through misfortune and harsh conditions, Kelly turned to criminality, as wealthy landowners forced smaller farmers off the meagre arable land available in the out-back. Yet from the way his helmeted head leans forward, he appears remorseful for his wrongdoings, an issue that is hotly debated in modern Australia.

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