First-class Marksman (painting)
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''First-class Marksman'' (1946) is a painting by the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n painter
Sidney Nolan Sir Sidney Robert Nolan (22 April 191728 November 1992) was one of the leading Australian artists of the 20th century. Working in a wide variety of media, 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 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...
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, 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 th ...
or
Heide Museum of Modern Art The Heide Museum of Modern Art, also known as Heide, is an art museum in Bulleen, Victoria, Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum exhibits modern art, modern and contemporary a ...
. It was purchased by the
Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...
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