#Nolan 100
No. 12 Hare in Trap - Nicholas Usherwood
Published:
Painted in 1946, Hare in A Trap was one of a significant group of paintings that Nolan kept by him throughout his life, a fact that, in itself, provides a clue to the very particular place this enigmatic and hauntingly beautiful work seems to occupy in his art.
Nolan always quietly insisted that his work was essentially autobiographical in character but he only ever left the barest of clues as to what he meant by this, leaving it up to writers and critics to speculate. In this case it was Nolan's observation that the blue eyes of the hare were the eyes of his father; his relationship with his tram-driver father, always uneasy, had been further severely strained by his desertion from the army two years earlier. Other elements in any psychological/autobiographical reading that suggest themselves here were the accidental death of his brother Raymond on naval service the year before while a visit to Kelly Country earlier in the year may well have stirred memories of his father's father who had been involved in the police search for Kelly and revived childhood memories of visits to family in North Victoria. These visits had, of course, been made in preparation for the first, iconic 'Ned Kelly' series, also in full flow in 1946, the landscape, with its scrubby bush and scattered trees, being stylistically identical to those of the early Kelly paintings. Close in feeling to it as well are those paintings exploring his childhood memories of St Kilda Beach and Luna Park Funfair of a few months earlier in which he also seemed to be attempting some urgent resolution of a carefree past and his present, turbulent circumstances. But some things here are, for me at least, beyond such speculation, above all those ten, potent, red and white spots underneath the hare's legs – blood and fur - a reference to Freud and Oedipus (literally 'swollen foot'), or simply an essential compositional device?"
Nicholas Usherwood is a curator, art critic and writer on contemporary art and culture. He has written for publications including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Arts Reviewand Resurgence and is currently Features Editor of Galleries Magazine.
Sidney Nolan, Hare in Trap, 1946, Ripolin enamel on hardboard, 90.5 x 121.5 cm board, Purchased with funds provided by the Nelson Meers Foundation, the Margaret Hannah Olley Art Trust, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 2007, © The Trustees of the Sidney Nolan Trust/Bridgeman Art Library
The Nolan 100
No.1 - Four Abstracts - Alexander Downer
No.2 - Self Portrait - Angus Trumble
No.3 - Arabian Tree - Kendrah Morgan
No.4 Riverbend I - Francine Stock
No.5 - Desert - Andrew Logan
No.6 Dog and Duck - Jane Clark
No.7 Vivisector - Tim Abdallah
No.8 In the Cave - Rebecca Daniels
No.9 Young Soldier - Clare Woods
No.10 Ned Kelly - Shaun Gladwell
No.11 Bird - Deborah Ely
No. 12 Hare in Trap - Nicholas Usherwood
No.13 Untitled (Catani Arch, St Kilda) - David Rainey
No.14 Death of a Poet - Simon Martin
No.15 Study for Samson et Dalila - Elijah Moshinsky
No.16 Rimbaud at Harar - Edmund Capon AM OBE
No.17 Quilting the Armour - Jackie Haliday
No.18 Snake - David Walsh
No.19 Angel and the Tree - Dr Nicky McWilliam
No.20 Brian the Stockman at Wave Hill Mounting a Dead Horse - Damian Smith
No.21 Steve Hart Dressed as a Girl -Jennifer Higgie
No.22 Women and Billabong - Anthony Plant
No.23 Agricultural Hotel - Philip Mead
No.24 Policeman in a Wombat Hole - Kay Whitney
No.25 Peter Grimes - David Lipsey
No.26 Self Portrait in Youth - Barry Pearce & Duncan Fallowell
No.27 Riverbend I - Ian Dungavell
No.28 Drowned Soldier at Anzac as Icarus - Paul Gough
No.29 Thames - John Tooley
No.30 Girl - Amelda Langslow
No.31 Ned Kelly and Policeman - Daniel Crawshaw
No.32 Tarred and Feathered - Nick Cave
No.33 Self Portrait - Denise Mimmocchi
No.34 Peter Grimes's Apprentice - George Vass
No.35 The Emu Hunt - Roger Law
No.36 Luna Park - Paula Dredge
No.37 Rose in Coffee Pot - Anthony Collier
No.38 The Cardplayers - Nevin Jayawardena
No.39 Bathers - Lesley Harding
No.40 Aboriginal Girl - Jennie Milne
No.41 Pretty Polly Mine - Michael Brand
No 42. Roses in a Merric Boyd Vase - Jack Galloway
No 43. Brett Whiteley - Jonathan Watkins
No 44. Island - Nick Yelverton
No 45. Luna Park - Bill Granger
No 46. Face of the Damned - Kate McMillan
No 47. Central Australia - Leanne Santoro
No 48. Crane - Brian Adams
No 49. Myself - Simon Mundy
No 50. Going to Work, Rising Sun Hotel, 1948 - David Ferry
No 51. Figure at Harar - Andrew Turley
No 52, Greek Figures - Simon Pierse
No 53. Randolph Stow - Suzanne Falkiner
No 54. Landscape No.27 (Convalescence) - Suzanne Falkiner
No 55. Self portrait - Oliver McCall
No 56. McMurdo Sound - Mike Clements
No 57. Faun, Woman, Rider, Horse - Mark Fraser
No 58. Season in Hell (Benjamin Britten) - Anne Bean
No 59. The Slip - Humphrey Ocean
No 60. Central Australia - Chris Drury
No 61. Riverbend - Christina Slade
No 62. Head - Celia Johnson
No 63. Myth Rider - Desmond Browne
No 64. Stockman - Bridget McDonnell
No 65. Untitled (flower) - Roma Piotrowska
No 66. Chinese Landscape - Celia Perceval
No 67. Untitled - Des Hughes
No 68. Crucifixion - Rod Bugg
No 69. Icebergs - Laurence Hall
No 70. Bather in a Lily Pool - Amanda Fitzwilliams
No 71. Breaks like the Atlantic Ocean on my head - Michael Berkeley
No 72. Carcase in Swamp - Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
No 73. Ern Malley - Isabella Boorman
No 74. Mrs Reardon at Glenrowan - Adrian Kelly
No 75. Landscape Carnarvon Range, Queensland - Catherine Noske
No 76. Abraham and Isaac - Sarah Bardwell
No 77. Rosa Mutabilis - Catherine Hunter
No 78. Artist drawing nude - Victoria Lynn
No 79. Boy and the moon - Natalie Wilson
NO 80. Explorer and Township - Helen Idle
No 81. All Tastes Like Dust in the Mouth... - Carolyn Leder
No 82. Young Boy Who Was Good at Latin - Roxy Shaw
No 83. Mrs Fraser - Anne Carter
No 84. Paradise Garden - David Oliver
No 85. Leda and the Swan - Marilyn Sweet
No 86. Burke and Wills at the Gulf - Jenny Watson
No 87. Dream of the latrine sitter - Ryan Johnston
No 88. Footballer - Gerard Vaughan
NO 89. Sketch for Ned Kelly - Amanda Fuller
NO 90. Woman in Lagoon - Jinx Nolan
No 91. Cherries in a bowl - Peter Blake
No 92. Fountain - Heywood Hill
No 93. Artist and painting - Charles Nodrum
No 94. Death of Constable Scanlon - Anita Taylor
No 95. Untitled (abstract) - David Jaffe
No 96. Digital image - Joe Studholme
No 97. Seated figure and bird - Sally Aitken
No 98. Burke and Wills expedition 'Gray sick' - Gary Sangster
No 99. Kangaroo at Ayers Rock - Pru and Anthony Napolitano
No 100. The Galaxy - Elizabeth Langslow