05/06/2026
“During years spent on Hydra in the late 1950s, Sidney Nolan read 'The Iliad' and Robert Graves’ 'The Greek Myths', incorporating the contents and themes of these works into his own. Before addressing Leda and the Swan, he considered ways in which he could depict the Trojan War itself, rather than the mythological event that triggered it. As Brian Adams writes in his biography of Nolan, 'Such is Life' (1987), 'Nolan developed the idea of Troy as a subject for a series of paintings. He was interested in it, not simply as a battle that had taken place quite near, on the other side of the Aegean, but as a composite subject incorporating memories of life in Australia.' Nolan was searching for aesthetic mechanisms, then, that would connect Ancient events and themes to his own era, and to his own country, if not universalise them altogether. It is perhaps for this reason that, when he did engage with Leda and the Swan, he would depict the tale’s protagonist as an almost mannequin-like figure, her body and face rendered with a simplification of features and narrative cues that universalised – rather than particularised – her experience.”
- Julius Killerby, excerpt from 'Before & After The Swan', 2025.
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Images: (1) Sidney Nolan in Hydra, 1956, (2) Sidney Nolan, 'Untitled IV' (detail), 1959, dye on kaolin-primed paper, 30.5cm x 25.5cm. Images courtesy of The Sidney Nolan Trust.
