- 66
DOG AND
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Description
DOG AND
DUCK HOTEL
Ripolin enamel on composition board
Signed and dated Aug 22 1948 lower right
91.5 by 122cm
Exhibited
Sidney Nolan, exhibition of Queensland Outback paintings, David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, March 1949, cat. 13 as 'Dog and Duck Hotel'
Sidney Nolan Retrospective Exhibition, Paintings from 1937 to 1967, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and tour to Melbourne and Perth, 12 September 1967-4 February 1968, cat. 42
Sidney Nolan, Marlborough Galerie AG, Zurich, October-November 1973
Nolan's Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed, Agnew's, London, 11 June-25 July 1997, cat. 34, illus.
Reference
Adams, B., Sidney Nolan, Such is Life, a Biography, Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1987, p.89 illus., pp.216-8, 245
'This one was so very much a part of our lives. You know he bought it back and it always hung at The Rodd.
There's always somebody sitting on the verandah of an outback hotel; and always a woman at the door. But then here's this amazing, wonderful duck! What a completely Nolan thing to do!
This is the Australian experience of waiting - always waiting. That's long and slow; but Sidney captured it all in an instant. You know a lot of the landscape in this is hardboard - that's a daring thing to do!'
As Nolan told the Sydney Sunday Sun in 1949, 'Every Australian township has its hotel and each has its story' (colour supplement, 20 February 1949). He visited remote northern Queensland townships at the end of 1947; and travelled 'back of Bourke' the following year with his family. There, he said, he found a large part of Australia's 'energy' - a product of the clash between the memories of pioneering settlers and explorers and the impact of the new Australian scene (Clark, J., Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and legends 1937-1987, ICCA and Cambridge Univserity Press, Sydney, 1987, p. 102).
Dog and Duck Hotel was one of the most whimsical and delightful works in his first one-person exhibition in Sydney (the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased Pretty Polly Mine from the same show). Reviewers admired Nolan's colour, in particular the blazing Ripolin sky contrasted with the sunbaked, hardboard landscape. Comparison was made with Drysdale's outback townships, The Bulletin finding 'more breadth and humour' in Nolan's treatment of the theme (ibid.). The duck is, of course, a witty play on the hotel's name - more appropriate, perhaps, for a cosy hunting hostelry somewhere in England! As it floats, in mid air, time seems to stand still. It is also a faux naif formal device which dramatically flattens the picture plane.
In the words of Harry Tatlock Miller, as critic for The Sun, Nolan's outback hotels and bizarrely wonderful birds make an amazing impact and leave an indelible impression: 'These pictures remain in the mind persistently flavouring the following hoursÉ I can remember no other exhibition by a contemporary Australian which, with such seemingly disarming innocence of eye and hand, reveals so much individuality of vision' (8 March 1949).
Dog and Duck Hotel was sold by an Australian private owner in 1972 to the British collector Alistair McAlpine for $60000, then the record price for any Australian painting, surpassing Drysdale's Cricketers at $45000 (see Terry Ingram in The Australian Financial Review, 4 December 1972, p. 4; The Age and Brisbane Courier-Mail, 5 December 1972). The artist repurchased it some years later for his personal collection.
AU$ 400000-600000
DUCK HOTEL
Ripolin enamel on composition board
Signed and dated Aug 22 1948 lower right
91.5 by 122cm
Exhibited
Sidney Nolan, exhibition of Queensland Outback paintings, David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, March 1949, cat. 13 as 'Dog and Duck Hotel'
Sidney Nolan Retrospective Exhibition, Paintings from 1937 to 1967, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and tour to Melbourne and Perth, 12 September 1967-4 February 1968, cat. 42
Sidney Nolan, Marlborough Galerie AG, Zurich, October-November 1973
Nolan's Nolans: A Reputation Reassessed, Agnew's, London, 11 June-25 July 1997, cat. 34, illus.
Reference
Adams, B., Sidney Nolan, Such is Life, a Biography, Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1987, p.89 illus., pp.216-8, 245
'This one was so very much a part of our lives. You know he bought it back and it always hung at The Rodd.
There's always somebody sitting on the verandah of an outback hotel; and always a woman at the door. But then here's this amazing, wonderful duck! What a completely Nolan thing to do!
This is the Australian experience of waiting - always waiting. That's long and slow; but Sidney captured it all in an instant. You know a lot of the landscape in this is hardboard - that's a daring thing to do!'
As Nolan told the Sydney Sunday Sun in 1949, 'Every Australian township has its hotel and each has its story' (colour supplement, 20 February 1949). He visited remote northern Queensland townships at the end of 1947; and travelled 'back of Bourke' the following year with his family. There, he said, he found a large part of Australia's 'energy' - a product of the clash between the memories of pioneering settlers and explorers and the impact of the new Australian scene (Clark, J., Sidney Nolan: Landscapes and legends 1937-1987, ICCA and Cambridge Univserity Press, Sydney, 1987, p. 102).
Dog and Duck Hotel was one of the most whimsical and delightful works in his first one-person exhibition in Sydney (the Art Gallery of New South Wales purchased Pretty Polly Mine from the same show). Reviewers admired Nolan's colour, in particular the blazing Ripolin sky contrasted with the sunbaked, hardboard landscape. Comparison was made with Drysdale's outback townships, The Bulletin finding 'more breadth and humour' in Nolan's treatment of the theme (ibid.). The duck is, of course, a witty play on the hotel's name - more appropriate, perhaps, for a cosy hunting hostelry somewhere in England! As it floats, in mid air, time seems to stand still. It is also a faux naif formal device which dramatically flattens the picture plane.
In the words of Harry Tatlock Miller, as critic for The Sun, Nolan's outback hotels and bizarrely wonderful birds make an amazing impact and leave an indelible impression: 'These pictures remain in the mind persistently flavouring the following hoursÉ I can remember no other exhibition by a contemporary Australian which, with such seemingly disarming innocence of eye and hand, reveals so much individuality of vision' (8 March 1949).
Dog and Duck Hotel was sold by an Australian private owner in 1972 to the British collector Alistair McAlpine for $60000, then the record price for any Australian painting, surpassing Drysdale's Cricketers at $45000 (see Terry Ingram in The Australian Financial Review, 4 December 1972, p. 4; The Age and Brisbane Courier-Mail, 5 December 1972). The artist repurchased it some years later for his personal collection.
AU$ 400000-600000