Sidney Nolan was born on April 22, 1917 in Melbourne, Australia. His father was a tram driver. In his youth he was a racing cyclist and athlete. He turned to art after attending night classes. John Reed was his patron and Nolan married Reed's sister, Cynthia, who was a novelist.

Nolan worked as a commercial artist in Melbourne in the 1930s. He served in the Australian army in 1941 through 1945. After the army, he joined the publishing firm of Reed and Harris. He based himself in London by 1954, and lived in New York City for two brief periods in the 1950s and 1960s. He was knighted in 1981 and is Australia's most literary painter, past or present. Narrative painting was thought to have vanish...