Walter Withers
(Australia 1854–1914)
Seeking for gold – cradling
- Other titles:
- Gold fossicking, Cradling, The gold puddlers, Gold fossickers
- Location
- 19th c Australian art
- Further information
'Seeking for gold – cradling' is a heroic depiction of the Australian worker and landscape. It presents two men fossicking for gold in a stream, saturated in brilliant sunlight. Each man is using a gold cradle – a box on inclined rockers containing metal sieves, which was moved by hand to process soil, capturing gold in the base of the cradle.
After arriving in Melbourne in 1883, English-born Walter Withers continued his studies at the National Gallery School. He became a central member of the Heidelberg group of artists and was a strong advocate of plein-air painting. In January 1893 Withers held outdoor painting classes in the gold mining town of Creswick, Victoria. Here he painted landscape and mining subjects including 'Seeking for gold – cradling', demonstrating his affinity with the Australian landscape. Other related works by Withers are held in the National Gallery of Australia and the City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery.
- Place of origin
-
Creswick,
Victoria,
Australia
- Year
- 1893
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas on hardboard
- Dimensions
- 67.0 x 49.6cm board
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.l., brown oil "Walter Withers/ 93".
- Credit
- Gift of the Australian Securities Exchange 2012
- Accession number
- 235.2012
