Sidney Nolan
(Australia, England 22 Apr 1917–28 Nov 1992)
Drought skeleton
- Other titles:
- Carcass, Drought
- Location
- 20th & 21st c Australian art
- Further information
In June 1952 Sidney Nolan travelled to the Northern Territory and Queensland, under commission from the Brisbane Courier-Mail, to record the effects of severe drought in the north of the continent. 'Drought skeleton', with its heat-seared bony remains, is one of a number of stark, uncompromising paintings created out of this harrowing experience.
Nolan’s approach was influenced by a recent visit to Italy where, during a visit to Pompeii, he had gained a similar sense of life suddenly suspended following the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The contorted forms of animals and humans petrified in the ashes – of which he’d seen plaster casts in the Pompeii museum – bore strong similarities to the twisted, yet still life-like, limbs of carcasses that resulted from drought.
- Year
- 1953
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 90.5 x 121.0cm board; 105.7 x 136.2 x 4.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated lower c., yellow/ochre oil "NOLAN/ 53/ .".
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Nelson Meers Foundation 2002
- Accession number
- 229.2002
- Copyright
- © The Trustees of the Sidney Nolan Trust
