#Nolan 100
No 87. Dream of the latrine sitter - Ryan Johnston
Published:
Dream of the latrine sitter' was painted in December 1942 in Dimboola, Victoria, where Nolan was stationed with the Australian Army and tasked with the undistinguished role of maintaining food supplies.
It depicts an unidentified soldier (who I, along with many others, like to think is Nolan), relieving himself on an outdoor toilet in the barren Wimmera landscape. The abject, excremental theme is echoed by both Nolan’s palette and technique, with the brown paint laid on so thin as to appear like a stain on the rough hardboard support.
While the subject of the latrine sitter’s eponymous dream is also unclear, it may well have been that of becoming an official war artist. The work was painted around the same time Nolan unsuccessfully approached the Australian War Memorial’s director, Major John Treloar, for a commission, and almost a year into John Reid’s epic letter writing campaign to lobby the Memorial to appoint more “modern” artists to the scheme. In an attempt to bolster his case for the latter Reid sent Treloar a copy of the catalogue to the Contemporary Art Society’s “Anti-Fascist Exhibition”, featuring 'Dream of the latrine sitter', shortly after it opened. It’s difficult to fathom why Reid thought bringing Nolan’s picture of a shitting soldier to Treloar’s attention might enhance his chances of a commission, and if anything it sealed his fate. Reid and Nolan’s subsequent entreaties were summarily dismissed.
Eighteen months after painting this picture Nolan deserted the army, a move that forced him into hiding and on to other artistic subject matter. Yet just over a decade later he would return to the theme of war with his sprawling Gallipoli series, ultimately consisting of hundreds of works spanning two decades of Nolan’s career. Yet while the Gallipoli pictures retained something of the murky palette and loose execution of 'Dream of the latrine sitter', they also at times mythologised the subject of war in a way the earlier, far more caustic work, pointedly refused.
If Nolan harboured a grudge against the Memorial for thwarting his dream of becoming a war artist this had dissipated by 1978 when, in a remarkable philanthropic act, he donated 252 works from the Gallipoli series to its collection. It remains among the most significant gifts in the institution’s history, and influenced how the Memorial would, from that point forward, increasingly emphasise the role of contemporary art in commemoration. In 2001, almost 60 years after its production, the present picture was finally acquired. The dream may therefore have remained as such, but Nolan’s point was made in the end."
Ryan Johnston is Head of Art at the Australian War Memorial. https://www.awm.gov.au/
Sidney Nolan, Dream of the latrine sitter, 1942, oil on hard board, 45.5 x 122 cm, Australian War Memorial [ART91645]. © Sidney Nolan Trust.
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