''The Drover's Wife'' is an oil painting on canvas executed in 1945 by Australian artist

Russell Drysdale Sir George Russell Drysdale (7 February 1912 – 29 June 1981), also known as Tass Drysdale, was an Australian artist. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize for ''Sofala'' in 1947, and represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1954. He was i ...

. It depicts a flat, barren landscape with a woman in a plain dress in the foreground. The drover with his horses and wagon are in the background. The painting has been described as "an allegory of the white Australian people's relationship with this ancient land."

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial perio ...

's 1892 short story "

The Drover's Wife ''The Drover's Wife'' is a 1945 painting by Australian artist Russell Drysdale. The painting depicts a flat, barren landscape with a woman in a plain dress in the foreground. The drover with his horses and wagon are in the background. The pain ...

" is widely seen as an inspiration for the painting, although Drysdale denies that."The Drover's Wife: Henry Lawson helps create our Mona Lisa"
by

Frank Moorhouse Frank Thomas Moorhouse (21 December 1938 – 26 June 2022) was an Australian writer. He won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, ...

, ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', 27 October 2017 The painting is now part of the collection of the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

References

Paintings by Russell Drysdale 1945 paintings Collections of the National Gallery of Australia Deniliquin Horses in art {{20C-painting-stub