When Geoffrey Smith of Smith & Singer auctioneers first saw Approaching Cooper’s Creek , Sidney Nolan ’s huge painting of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, it was 2003, and the work was hanging placidly in a Melbourne home.
A key piece from Nolan’s series on the explorers, which helped make the artist’s career along with his psychological series on the bushranger Ned Kelly, Approaching Cooper’s Creek , painted in 1950, took Smith’s breath away.
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