''First-class Marksman'' (1946) is a painting by the Australian painter

Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of Australia's leading artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of mediums, his oeuvre is among the most diverse and prolific in all of modern art. He is best known ...

. The painting depicts the figure of

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...

in solid black armour, Nolan's most recognisable motif, firing a rifle against the Australian landscape. The title refers to an incident that took place in Victoria's

Stringybark Creek Stringybark Creek is a small creek in the Wombat Ranges, Victoria, Australia. It is famous for the place where three policemen were murdered on the 28 of October 1878. The policemen, Sergeant Michael Kennedy, Constable Thomas Lonigan, and Consta ...

, when Kelly and his gang were practising their marksmanship, firing hundreds of rounds at surrounding trees from a bullet-proof hide-out. Dubbed "the missing Nolan", the work was the only painting in Nolan's first series of 27 Ned Kelly paintings not in the collection of the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...

Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum houses modern and contemporary art across three distinct exhibition buildings and is ...

. It was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales for $5.4 million. In 2010, ''First-class Marksman'' became the most expensive painting ever sold at auction in Australia.Australian Art Sales Digest
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References

{{Authority control Paintings by Sidney Nolan 1946 paintings Cultural depictions of Ned Kelly Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Paintings of people Ned Kelly