Art and family were intertwined in the life of Lady Mary Nolan, née Boyd, who has died aged 89. She was born into one family of prominent Australian artists, and gave birth to a second family of artists.
She expressed her own creativity in many ways: as a painter, potter, photographer and gardener.
This creativity was combined with a shrewd business brain, which she devoted toward securing the artistic legacy of her husband, painter Sir Sidney Nolan, after his death.
Both Mary and Sidney's families had Irish roots – hers in Cork and Galway, his in the Burren, Co Clare. They travelled here, and when the Irish Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1991, they donated six paintings from Sidney's Wild Geese series. They had an ambition to rebuild his forebears' old home and add an art gallery on to it, but planning permission was not granted.
Mary was born in 1926 into a family of well-known Australian artists and grew up in Murrumbeena, near Melbourne. Her father, Merric, ran a pottery studio there and became Australia’s first art potter, while her mother, Doris, was a talented painter.
Mary’s older siblings – sister Lucy and brothers Arthur, Guy and David – all became artists. Mary learned to paint and pot as a child, and was the subject of several paintings by her brothers.
Her first marriage, to artist and family friend John Perceval, was in 1944 and brought her four children: Matthew, Tessa, Celia and Alice. All four today work as artists. In the 1960s, the family moved to London. They joined a circle of talented Australian artists living in the city, whose work Mary documented through photography. The marriage ended in divorce in the early 1970s.
Some years later, when Mary married the distinguished Australian artist Sidney Nolan, they travelled widely. They settled near the village of Presteigne in Wales, where they set up the Sidney Nolan Trust. After Sidney’s death in 1992, Mary worked to maintain Sidney’s artistic reputation.
The tributes from those who knew her – as a kind mentor, a loving family woman and a softly spoken storyteller but also as a skilful businesswoman and a fierce protector of Sidney’s legacy – reflect the talents and accomplishments of this remarkable woman.
She is survived by her children Matthew, Tessa, Celia and Alice Perceval, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.