LEDA

Sidney Nolan (1917-1992)

Myths and archetypes of myths seem to come in waves in western art, washing up on shore in various forms, and meeting different ends every few decades. Leda and the Swan is a myth that has washed up many times, as the muse of poets, writers, philosophers, and, of course, artists. The intrigue is the course it sets up for the life of the characters. The child who results from the rape of Leda by Zeus as a swan is the most beautiful Helen of Sparta, made famous by Homer’s classic line, “the face that launched a thousand ships.” The story of Leda is the ultimate idyllic tale, and Helen’s conception serves artists as the genesis of perfection and beauty, all that art can hope to be.

Nolan takes on this scene later in his career, when he already has some notoriety and is living in London, near the Thames. He is inspired by the river and it serves as an inspiration behind the paintings in this collection. While not all of the paintings in the series are directly from the Leda series, many are completed around the same time and fit the general style. By viewing the images as a group they are able to be interpreted in a more authentic context, offering a unique, and important perspective on these often overlooked works.

Sidney Nolan, The bather and the bird, 1956
ink and gouache on paper, Met Museum Collection, 1971.199

  

The small painting above is argued to be a study piece for Nolan’s Leda series and has never been on display since entering the Met collection in the 1970s. In interviews on the series, Nolan describes his inspiration from the Thames river in the UK and watching his daughter as she played in the water. The piece is reminiscent of a gracious exit from the river, and yet the lines of ink jerk for the viewers attention and seem to disrupt this mild image. The bather and the bird sets the context for what seems to be an secular rendering of the classic the Greek myth.

Sidney Nolan. Leda and the swan, 1960
synthetic polymer paint on hardboard, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 58.1974

This 1960 Leda painting is one of the final pieces of the series. Here the figures are clearly defined, a female nude on the left resisting a very feminine swan. The piece flows like a dance and the forms pull the eye around the hardboard in a heart-shaped path. The use of color is the fairly dramatic and almost garish when seen after the work before it. For the level of violence incited by the narrative of the piece, there is little violence to be actually seen. The Leda figure floats above the streaming ground as her body forms a loose curve molding the figures together form a kind of desperate dance.

Sidney Nolan, Leda and the swan, 1958
polyvinyl acetate on hardboard, Art Gallery of New South Wales, OA35.1960

Painted exactly a year between the two paintings above, this painting can be viewed as visual bridge between the more abstract rendering of the Leda scene with the more familiar, but in spite of its abstraction, the scene is wrought with danger and violence. The form of the swan is very similar to the Nolan’s later swan, only now instead of working with the female form the swan works over and against her, dominating her firm, stick-like body which cuts the hardboard diagonally. The vibrant primary colors pop out at the viewer from the darker background and unite Leda’s body with the Swan's claws. While her body is still, she seems to lurch out with her eyes, pulling the viewer into her pain with no more than a gaze.

Sidney Nolan, Animal in Swamp, 1958
polyvinyl acetate on hardboard, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 93.2013

This image is not apart of the Leda series, but overlaps the series as it was painted during the same period of Nolan’s life. The work fits into Nolan’s recent experiences in Greece and is a predecessor to the later group of paintings he would complete on the Gallipoli Campaign which took place there. The painting is the largest of this collection and stands over five feet tall. The importance of this pieces within the context of the Leda series, is the similarity in the way in which Nolan uses the polyvinyl acetate paint with new non-traditional tools, like a squeegee, to create an image with movement and feeling as the animal struggles on the glossy surface. The Gallipoli Campaign took place during World War I in modern Turkey and was an attempt by the Ally forces to secure a sea route to Russia. It ended with the defeat of the Allies and major political unrest in Britain. Nolan as an Australian Artist was taken by the unlikely success of the non-West over his own decedents. By examining this thin paint on hardboard and the violence it evokes it is easy to visually see the way it parallels with the early Leda paintings by Nolan. Understanding the context the Leda series was created in is fundamental to its interpretation and this series allows us as viewers to explore what the artist was thinking about in conjunction with his Leda paintings.

Nolan, Sidney. Leda and the Swan, 1960
ripolin on composition board, Company collection, London.

This piece has been in private collections for almost its entire life meaning that it has seldom been viewed as apart of the series of images since it was first shown in the 1960s. The abstract departure Nolan takes in the way he renders the female form makes it unclear if Leda is successfully escaping the swan or if she is about to be overcome. While Leda’s form is stylized and flattened, the bird implodes the viewers space, looking more like a real swan than in any of Nolan’s other works. The dynamic composition both propels the viewer in while disillusioning him with paradoxes of color and line. This work has the dance like quality of the early Leda painting, with the seductive lines of Leda’s body moving with the swan and giving off an air of the Leda’s queenly nobility. While this image lacks the facial psychology of some of Nolan’s other works within the series, Nolan makes up for it by creating movement which adds unique color to the Leda narrative.

Nolan, Sidney, 1, 1961
lithography on paper, Tate Collection, P03281

This final piece is actually the beginning of Nolan’s series of Leda lithographs. The relatively small image (17 inches by almost 24 inches) on paper has a delicacy and an almost pensive quality. The female form does not meet the viewers gaze, but her strong form is reclined and her face relaxed. Only the large wing of the swan is completely visible but the rest of the form seems to be overlaying Leda’s body, giving the two a sense of oneness. The jagged lines direct the viewer to the important component of the lithograph–the rape itself. The violent scene happens in tranquility in the most still and stable composition yet of Nolan’s Leda series. Leda’s stylized form colliding and morphing with the great swan propose a harmony between the two paradoxically both complements and revolts.

–Elizabeth Simakoff