Sidney Nolan is among Australia’s most celebrated artists, his legacy intertwined with national myth — from Ned Kelly haunting the outback to Gallipoli and Burke and Wills — all told with remarkable invention.

This work features his most iconic subject, Ned Kelly. When Nolan first turned to Kelly, he immersed himself in the legend, seeing in him a tragic, mythic outsider — a figure through whom he explored themes of exile and identity. Created in 1955, this ink on paper belongs to Nolan’s second Ned Kelly series (1954–56), produced after his move to Europe. From this distance, Kelly evolved from folk hero to universal symbol — a lone figure in the landscape, both defiant and displaced.

Represented in every state gallery and internationally at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate, London, Nolan’s Ned Kelly series transformed the course of Australian art. Abstracted, enigmatic, and enduringly modern, it remains essential to any serious collection of Australian art.

Sidney NOLAN (1917 - 1992)
'Kelly' 1955
ink on paper
Image Size: 21 x 26 cm
Dimensions: 48 x 51 x 4 cm
Signed: dated and inscribed verso: 'Kelly / Nolan / 15 / 1 / 55
Comes with Letter of Provenance
Related Works: Related Kelly series works from 1953-55 are illustrated in Colin MacInnes, Sidney Nolan, Thames and Hudson, London, 1961, plates 57-58, 63, 67-69
Condition: Excellent
(c) Sidney Nolan / Copyright Agency