Sidney Nolan is regarded as one of Australia’s greatest and most influential artists. While he is widely celebrated for the mythic narratives that shaped his career—Ned Kelly’s spectral figure in the outback, the tragedy of Burke and Wills, the memory of Gallipoli—Nolan’s early landscapes reveal the foundation on which these legends were built.

Painted in 1942, 'House on Hill' belongs to a formative period in Nolan’s practice, when he was developing his bold visual language and establishing the distinct sense of place that would come to define his artistic practice. This painting captures the atmosphere of the Australian landscape with a warm, Summer-day haziness. On top of a dry, tree-spotted hill sits a lone house, one that is instantly reminiscent of the Heide cottage where he and his fellow 'Heide Circle' artists spent so much of their time.

Nolan’s importance is reflected in his presence in every major Australian state gallery, as well as internationally at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s Tate. 'House on a Hill' is a striking, historically resonant painting destined to be a compelling acquisition for any collection of important Australian art.

Sidney NOLAN (1917 - 1992)
'House on Hill' 1942
Enamel on canvas sacking
Image Size: 36 x 45 cm
Signed: Signed and dated verso: 'Nolan / 15.2.42'

Comes with Letter of Provenance

Exhibited: Sidney Nolan, Sheffields Newsagency, Heidelberg, Melbourne, July 1942. Making History: Nolan at the Newsagent, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 18 November 2017 - 20 May 2018.

Literature: Making History: Nolan at the Newsagent, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2017, pp. 3, 5, 10 (illus.)

Condition: Very Good

(c) Sidney Nolan / Copyright Agency