Oil paint on hardboard
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-sidney-nolan-1708" aria-label="More by Sir Sidney Nolan" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Sidney Nolan</a>
Inland Australia
Purchased 1951
Australia
countries and continents
crater
desert
landscape
places
rocky
<p>In June 1948 Nolan embarked on a period of travel to remote areas of Australia. Travelling by truck, train, aeroplane and boat, he journeyed inland across New South Wales to Adelaide. He then went north across the central desert to Darwin, returning via the Western coast to Sydney. The view of inland Australia seen from the air made the greatest impression on Nolan. He was profoundly affected by the vast scale, desolation and silence of the desert - the second largest in the world. Like his many other paintings of this subject, this work is what Nolan called a 'composite impression'. It combines documentary observation with visionary imagination, faithfully evoking a landscape whose immensity seems strangely unreal.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint hardboard
6 June 2003 – 17 August 2003
2003-08-17
6 June 2003 – 17 August 2003
2003-08-17
2003-06-06
National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au
2003-06-06
Sidney Nolan: Desert and Drought
Loan-out
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
5 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
2005-12-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-12-05
Realisms
Collection based display
3 November 2007 – 28 September 2008
2008-09-28
3 November 2007 – 3 February 2008
2008-02-03
2007-11-03
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
22 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-22
National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au
6 June 2008 – 28 September 2008
2008-09-28
2008-06-06
Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia)
2007-11-03
Sidney Nolan Retrospective
Loan-out
18 February 2017 – 4 June 2017
2017-06-04
18 February 2017 – 4 June 2017
2017-06-04
2017-02-18
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
2017-02-18
Sidney Nolan: A Centenary Exhibition
Loan-out
Inland Australia
support: 1219 × 1524 mm
frame: 1370 × 1676 × 58 mm
Purchased 1951
<p>In June 1948 Nolan embarked on a period of travel to remote areas of Australia. Travelling by truck, train, aeroplane and boat, he journeyed inland across New South Wales to Adelaide. He then went north across the central desert to Darwin, returning via the Western coast to Sydney. The view of inland Australia seen from the air made the greatest impression on Nolan. He was profoundly affected by the vast scale, desolation and silence of the desert - the second largest in the world. Like his many other <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of this subject, this work is what Nolan called a 'composite impression'. It combines documentary observation with visionary imagination, faithfully evoking a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> whose immensity seems strangely unreal.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05993</b> INLAND AUSTRALIA 1950</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘23-3-50 Nolan’ b.r.
<br/>Ripolin on hardboard, 48×60 (121·5×152).
<br/>Purchased from the artist through the Redfern Gallery (Knapping Fund) 1951.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> K. Bonython 1950, relinquished in favour of the Tate Gallery 1951.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> David Jones Gallery, Sydney, April 1950 (38); Redfern Gallery, January 1951 (7).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Clark, MacInnes and Robertson, 1961, p.20.
<br/>
<br/>Painted early in 1950, one of forty-seven pictures executed 1949–50 when the artist visited Central Australia; the trip was made largely by plane, ‘creating to a large extent the impression from which the picture was painted’ (letter from the artist, February 1951).
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
Australia countries and continents crater desert landscape places rocky