Nolan first studied at the Prahran Technical College in his hometown, Melbourne, and continued at the National Gallery School in Sydney, 1934-6. Following his military service during World War II in the Australian Army, Nolan worked as a designer and an illustrator, emerging as a full-time painter in Sydney at the beginning of the 1950's. Shortly afterwards, Nolan setteled in England. Subsequent to his first one-man show at his Melbourne Studio in 1941, Nolan went on to exhibit in London at the Redfern Gallery, Marlborough Fine Art, Tate Gallery and ICA and in Oxford at the Ashmolean Museum.Nolan has been called a painter's painter, whose work often took the form of a personal diary. He was able to work intensively over short periods and was noted for series of pictures with a single theme, such as the Ned Kelly paintings and drawings, amongst his most memorable images.