While visiting Stephen Spender in San Francisco, Sidney Nolan was introduced to the work of another poet, the American Robert Lowell. Nolan was enlivened by the discovery, pledging to meet Lowell who he would go on to illustrate a book of poetry for.

Lowell’s book, ‘The Voyage’, is a translation of poems by Baudelaire, a French poet and essayist who has been described as the first Modernist. To accompany Baudelaire’s poetry, Nolan painted twenty-four images including this work. Infused with “a tremendous urgency” as T. G. Rosenthall writes, it is an oil and ink, perhaps created using brushes, rags and nylon stockings.

‘Baudelaire: Voyage’ sits beside the poem ‘Voyage to Cythera’, a baroque tale of a poet’s demise beneath the violent natural order. It is about the twin drives of eros and thanatos – life and death – that underlie nature, threats that humans build civilisations to deny. On the work’s verso, Nolan has scrawled stanzas from Baudelaire’s poem to drive his composition. He paints a spectre of a man, a bird poised to pierce his middle.

‘Baudelaire: Voyage’ is art-historically rich. It reflects Nolan’s interest in the literary, his distinct modernism and use of unconventional materials. At once raw and theatrical, ‘Baudelaire: Voyage’ is a highly collectable find for collectors of Nolan, Australian modernism and literary art.

Impeccably framed with museum quality mount board and Artglass, this work of art is both safeguarded for years to come and ready to be enjoyed the moment it is hung. Additionally, the work is framed with Perspex on the back so that the artist’s insightful inscriptions on the artworks reverse can be read. To complete your acquisition, this work is accompanied by an edition of the book in which it is illustrated, Lowells The Voyage. 

Sidney NOLAN (1917 - 1992)
'Baudelaire: Voyage to Cythera' 1965
oil paint and ink on paper
Image Size: 30 x 25 cm
Dimensions: 66 x 59 x 3 cm
Signed: Signed 'N' verso and dated 11 Jan 1965
Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Certificate Of Authenticity signed by the Agent for the estate of Lady Nolan provided

Work of art is accompanied by Robert Lowell THE VOYAGE & other versions of the poems by Baudelaire. Illustrated page 55: Robert Lowell THE VOYAGE & other versions of the poems by Baudelaire (Faber and Faber Limited, London).

Inscribed on verso: “Nature of Cythera, initiate / how silently you hung and suffered insult / in retribution for your dirty cult / and orgasms only death could expiateFerocious vultures choking down thick blood / gutted the hanging [xxx], already foul; / each smacked its beak like the flat of a trowel / into the private places of their food” N. 11th Jan 1965. 

Condition: Very Good

(c) Sidney Nolan / Copyright Agency

Read about this work and more in Sidney Nolan | Poems, Myths and Mermaids.