Railway guard, Dimboola
1943
Medium
enamel paint on canvas
Measurements
77.0 × 64.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Sir Sidney and Lady Nolan, 1983
© The Estate of Sidney Nolan / Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Conscripted into the Army supply corps, Sidney Nolan was stationed in the Wimmera from 1942 to 1944. He spent many hours on guard duty, drawing and meditating on the landscape, the small country towns dominated by towering wheat silos, their railway lifelines to the sea, the farm houses and the immense fertile wheat paddocks. Their apparent naivety and spontaneity is undermined by Nolan’s sophisticated sense of design and colour. Railway guard, Dimboola 1943 is part of this series of paintings and drawings which are amongst the best and most intensely felt of all of Nolan’s art, and mark his first sustained engagement with the Australian landscape.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Dimboola, Victoria
Inscription
inscribed in charcoal on backing board: Nolan RAILWAY GUARD / DIMMBOOLA / 1943 / No11
Accession Number
A23-1983
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
Dimboola (inhabited place) portrait heads railroad stations railroads (infrastructure) railway platforms security guards Victoria (state)
Movements
Angry Penguins
Frame
Reproduction, 2002, based on film footage from 1944