SYDNEY.- Estimated to fetch up to $1.3 million, 64 artworks from the estate of Sir Sidney Nolan will be on public view at Byron Kennedy Hall in the Entertainment Quarter, Sydney from 9-11 August ahead of the Bonhams Melbourne auction on 20th August.

Sidney Nolan, 1917-92 is Australia’s most famous and recognised artist both in Australia and internationally. He began painting professionally in 1937 and came to worldwide fame with his Ned Kelly paintings executed in 1946-47. A Ned Kelly painting titled First Class Marksman was sold for $5.4m in 2010, a record price for any Australian painting.

The Bonhams’ auction comprises paintings, drawings and a giant handwoven tapestry from the Ned Kelly series that have remained in the artist’s estate since his death in 1992.

Very few early Nolan works come on to the market as the majority were donated to public art galleries by Sidney Nolan.

Most of the paintings have not been seen in public since the 1940s and ’50s.

Highlights from the collection include:

•Girl and Dog Kiata 1943 (estimate $60,000-80,000) the companion piece to the iconic painting Kiata in the National Gallery of Australia

•Paintings from Nolan’s sensational and controversial years at Heide in Melbourne with John and Sunday Reed.

•Enormous unique handwoven tapestry, 288 x 402cm Constable Fitzpatrick and Kate Kelly ($50,000-80,000) based on the painting in the National Gallery of Australia

•Rediscovered major 1946-47 painting from Nolan’s Mrs Fraser and the Convict series, The Spearing of Captain Fraser ($50,000-70,000), a companion piece to Mrs Fraser in the Queensland Art Gallery

•Original Ned Kelly coloured drawing Kelly and Lonigan from circa 1945 ($3,000-5,000)

•Never before seen abstracts from 1938-41

The collection will be exhibited in Sydney from 9-11 August (10am-5pm) at Byron Kennedy Hall in the Entertainment Quarter; and in Melbourne at Como House, South Yarra, from 16-19 August (10am-5pm). It is open to the public and is free to attend.