Sidney Nolan Australia in 2013, following those of Brett Whiteley and Russell Drysdale. Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (; 22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of Australia's leading artists of the 20th century. His oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known for his series of paintings on legends from Australian history, most famously Ned Kelly, the bushranger and outlaw. Nolan's stylised depiction of Kelly's armour has become an icon of Australian art. Sidney Nolan was born in Carlton, at that time an inner working-class suburb of Melbourne, on 22 April
Ned Kelly heavily, which had an ultimately fatal effect on his health. In November 1866 his body started to swell from dropsy and he died at Avenel on 27 December 1866. When he died, he and his wife had produced a total of eight children, Mary Jane (died as an infant aged 6 months), Annie (later Annie Gunn), Margaret (later Margaret Skillion), Ned, Dan, James, Kate and Grace (later Grace Griffiths). The saga surrounding his father and his treatment by the police made a strong impression on the young Kelly. A few years later the family selected of uncultivated and untitled farmland