Lady Interrupted, 1964 (oil on board)

Inspiration for several of Nolan’s most memorable 'Adelaide Ladies' was scrawled in his diary on April 26th 1964: “Paint 3 Adelaide ladies Ala Vermeer, Salome John the Baptist, Dobells Kensington lady”. The echoes of Vermeer’s “Girl interrupted at her music” are unmistakable in Nolan’s ‘Lady Interrupted’. The angle of the head, the back of the chair, the falling of the light, the shape of the body and instead of the simple linen shawl, as Nolan wrote, the flower festooned “seaweed mop like hat… covered with lollies” all mirror the Dutch masters subject.