- Artist
- Sir Sidney Nolan 1917–1992
- Medium
- Polyvinyl acetate paint on hardboard
- Dimensions
- Support: 1524 × 1219 mm
frame: 1550 × 1250 × 53 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1957
- Reference
- T00151
Catalogue entry
T00151 WOMAN AND BILLABONG 1957
Inscr. ‘N 57’ b.r. and, on back, ‘May 1957’.
Polyvinyl acetate on hardboard, 60×48 (152·5×122).
Purchased from the artist (Knapping Fund) 1957.
Exh: Whitechapel Art Gallery, June–July 1957 (86).
Lit: Clark, MacInnes and Robertson, 1961, pp.21–2, repr. pl.89.
Painted in London in 1957, one of the second series of paintings of the story of Mrs Fraser; the first series was painted 1947–8 after a visit to Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland. Mrs Fraser, a Scottish lady, was shipwrecked on the island and lived among the aborigines for six months until discovered by Bracefell, an escaped convict. He led her to a European settlement, whereupon she threatened to denounce him and he returned to the Bush. Mrs Fraser, who had lost all her clothes, is shown naked; in other pictures of the series Bracefell is shown in convict's stripes.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II
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