13/08/2026
A self-portrait at a pivotal moment
Painted in London in 1958, Sidney Nolan’s 'Self-portrait with a Flower' captures the artist at a remarkable turning point.
Just a year earlier, Nolan had been the subject of Bryan Robertson’s landmark retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery, surveying a decade of his work. The exhibition established him firmly on the international stage.
In 1958, Nolan was still looking outward. He travelled to Paris to study engraving and lithography at Atelier 17 under S.W. Hayter. Then, in July, he left Europe for New York with Cynthia and Jinx, taking up a two-year Harkness Fellowship.
This self-portrait, painted in the first half of that year, therefore belongs to a fascinating moment: Nolan had been internationally recognised, but had not yet embarked on the next chapter of his American career.
The flower adds another intriguing dimension. Nolan was painting flowers around this time, and the motif would later become increasingly significant in his work, anticipating his fascination with the Paradise Garden.
There is another remarkable detail in the painting's history.
The gallery labels verso identify Roland, Browse & Delbanco, 19 Cork Street — directly opposite Messums at No. 28. The painting was acquired there in 1958. More than six decades later, that provenance brought the painting back to the same stretch of Cork Street.
Perhaps most significantly, this work appears to occupy a conspicuous gap in the known corpus of Nolan’s self-portraits: between the early heads of the 1940s and those that re-emerge in the 1980s.
A rare self-portrait. A pivotal year. And an extraordinary Cork Street connection.
Sidney Nolan, Self-portrait with a flower, 1958
Emulsion paint on board
48 × 36 in / 122 × 91.5 cm
This work will be exhibited on our stand at Sydney Contemporary this September.
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