[NOLAN]. Fine Australian Paintings

Melbourne : Sotheby’s, 1989. Quarto, self-wrappers, pp. [12], illustrating First Class Marksman (1946) by Sidney Nolan, and works by Fairweather and Brack.

For many years First Class Marksman (1946) was the only painting from Sidney Nolan’s seminal Kelly series remaining in private ownership, the other 26 paintings from the series being in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. In 1989, the painting was auctioned on behalf of the Sidney Nolan Trust, where it sold for $825,000 to Baron McAlpine of West Green. It was subsequently sold to art collector Steve Vizard. In 2010 it was sold on behalf of The Vizard Foundation where it fetched $5.4 million, being an auction record for an Australian painting. It was purchased by the Gleeson O’Keefe Foundation (established by the late artist James Gleeson and his partner Frank O’Keefe) and donated to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.