Sidney Nolan 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 1917. He was the eldest of four children. His parents, Sidney
Ned Kelly beard among men in Western countries in the mid 19th-century, and was worn by many Australian bushrangers, including Ned Kelly, who was hanged in Melbourne in 1880 after he and his gang killed policemen. The day before his execution at Old Melbourne Gaol, Kelly posed for a photographic portrait by Charles Nettleton, which has since become a recognisable image to generations of Australians. The Australian National Dictionary Centre cites this photograph as the inspiration for the term Ned Kelly beard. The term was shortlisted in the Australian National Dictionary Centre's 2014 word of the year competition, but lost to shirtfront, an