Art Down Under

From British Colonial to Aboriginal art and Western masterpieces, Bridgeman is proud to represent many of the great Australian museums for image licensing. We also manage the estate of Sir Sidney Nolan, one of Australia’s most renowned 20th century artists.

National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, is the national art museum of Australia, as well as the largest art museum in the country, established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art museum.

Images available for licensing from this prestigious collection include some of the finest of Australia's Western modern art. Alongside great landscapes of the rugged Australian outback, and poignant photography of early settler life, are the iconic images of the notorious outlaw and folk hero Ned Kelly by one of Australia’s greatest painters, Sir Sidney Nolan, of whom Bridgeman also represents the estate for copyright licensing. 

The Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, is the largest state art collection after the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. It holds more than 35,000 works of art including Australian artists, Aboriginal  and colonial British paintings, and Japanese decorative arts.   The Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, is a comprehensive collection of Australian art from settlement to contemporary, western art, photography and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art.

The National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia, Canberra, is the country’s largest reference library housing nearly 9 million items relating to the history and heritage of Australia and New Zealand, including prints, drawings, paintings, maps, manuscripts and photographs. The first visual records of Australia came from European explorers and typically covered flora and fauna research, such as the cotton-eared Marmoset (right) by Sydney Parkinson, Captain James Cook's botanical illustrator.   State Library of New South Wales Another wonderful resource covering Australia's unique history is the Mitchell Library, or State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. With almost 5 million items in the collection, the broad collection features Aboriginal studies and Antarctic exploration, alongside Australia’s cultural history and includes manuscripts, maps, newspapers and more than a million photographs.

Indigenous Australian art Aboriginal art or Indigenous Australian art is a part of the unwritten 'encyclopedia' of being an Aboriginal person, handed down through the generations for thousands of years, using  symbols centred on 'the Dreamtime' – the period in which Indigenous people believe the world was created.     Modern Aboriginal Art   Aboriginal artists use a wide range of modern materials and techniques to create contemporary works of fine art. Despite concerns about the remoteness of many of the artists and the poverty and health issues experienced in the communities, there are widespread estimates of an industry worth close to half a billion Australian dollars each year, and growing rapidly. Many works can be licensed from the Bridgeman archive via Corbally Stourton Contemporary Art, Australia

An Australian Original: Sidney Nolan

Bridgeman represents the estate of Sir Sidney Nolan, one of Australia’s most significant and internationally acclaimed 20th century artists. Nolan was prolific and experimental, not limiting his repertoire to one style or technique. As a young artist, he was bold and modern using simplified forms, the most famous of which are his paintings of Ned Kelly, the well-known outlaw in Australian folklore. In the 1960s he explored the use of alternative materials, and in the 1980s he expanded his focus to landscapes and florals. Nolan’s innovative and powerful paintings capture the rugged character of the Australian experience.