SIDNEY NOLAN

John Sinclair, Melbourne (inscription on the reverse);
his widow, Mrs Jean Sinclair;
until Australian and European Paintings, Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 29 March 1994, lot 137, illus. on the front cover
Private collection, purchased from the above

Nolan's war years, spent as a conscript in north-west Victoria, mark his first intense artistic immersion in the Australian landscape. It was a period of concentrated development, documented not only in the lyrical paintings that resulted, but also in his facinating correspondence with Sunday Reed who kept him supplied with materials. Wimmera Buildings, encapsulates Nolan's view of the vast, golden Wimmera wheatlands with their bright primary colour scheme, high horizon line, scrubby trees and glare.

In May 1942, Nolan had written to Sunday Reed about his efforts to make this flat, sparse landscape beautiful: 'simply that if you imagined the land going vertically into the sky it would work'. ¹ This painting originally belonged to John Sinclair, a fellow former Gallery School student, with whom Nolan shared a city studio from 1936 to 1938 and rooms in Parkville in 1944, after his desertion from the army.

1. Haese, R., Rebels and Precursors: the revolutionary years of Australian Art, Allen Lane, Melbourne, 1981, p. 195.