Russell Drysdale's quintessential vision of Australian outback life

Tue 28 Oct 2025

Russell Drysdale's painting Man feeding his dogs 1941 endures as a quintessential vision of outback life. The elongated, emaciated figures present a stark image based on the artist's own experiences. For Drysdale (1912–81), 1941 was a decisive year: he began to focus his compelling vision as a painter, to form his powerful images of Australia. In September he completed Man feeding his dogs.

Drysdale had intimate knowledge of the bush, having worked for several years as a jackeroo, and managing his father's property on the Riverina in north-central Victoria, however Drysdale's art is one of synthesis; a process of absorption, long reflection and calculated refinement. Never a plein-air (in the open air) painter, he gathered his imagery in drawings and photographs, reconstructing the motif in the studio through the filters of memory and imagination.

Man feeding his dogs (detail) 1941

The artist based Man feeding his dogs on characters and situations he recalled from his past, reconstructing the scene in his studio in Vaucluse, Sydney. By intensifying his memories, he created a desolate image of the Australian landscape. As he lopes stoically into view, the man feeding his dogs seems to measure the isolation, boredom and hard yakka of the entire day. To Drysdale 'he was one of those people who could have been a rabbiter on a property or ... an employee whose job it was to look after the station dogs'.

The use of one-point perspective illustrates its stage-like quality. The horizon line down notably low, effectively providing a ‘dog's-eye view’ of the world with a deep foreground, little mid-ground and a background that merges into the horizon.

This painting is recognised as Drysdale's first representation of the isolation, hostility and harshness of life in rural Australia. Though the painting is marked by a sense of desperation, the tenacious characters depicted go about their daily lives despite the challenges that confront them.

Man feeding his dogs 1941

Delve into the QAGOMA Collection

Back verandah 1942

Bush fire 1944

North Australian landscape 1959

Jon Molvig Russell Drysdale 1964

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Brisbane, Australia