Born 1917 in Melbourne, Nolan studied intermittently at the Melbourne National Art Gallery. His first success came with an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Society in Melbourne of a series of pictures on the theme of Ned Kelly the bushranger. The series was later shown in Paris.

Over the years Nolan was widely acclaimed in Australia and overseas for his flair for painting outback studies of the harsh Australian climate, using convicts, droughts and historical themes. These pictures helped set the pattern from which the Australian regional school developed. Nolan travelled, worked and studied widely in Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East, and held numerous successful exhibitions. In 1960 a leading British critic described him as 'one of the most outstanding painters of our time'.

In 1974, Nolan presented twenty-four paintings to the people of Australia which form the Nolan Gallery’s Foundation Collection. The paintings were entrusted to the then Department of the Capital Territory which had responsibility for Lanyon, an historic homestead opened to the public in March 1975. Nolan considered Lanyon a perfect setting for his paintings as the environment matched the mood of his work.

Sir Sidney Nolan donated three further collections to be housed at the Nolan Gallery; two of drawings, 'For the Term of His Natural Life' and 'Rimbaud/Cézanne'; and one of twenty paintings from the Illumination series.

His works are represented in all state galleries and many overseas collections. Sidney Nolan was knighted in 1981. He died in 1992.