Seeking for gold - cradling

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.