The Drover's Wife

{{Short description|Painting by Russell Drysdale}}

{{about|the Drysdale painting}}

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox artwork

| image_file= Drysdale The Drover's Wife 1945.JPG

| backcolor=#FBF5DF

| image_size=300px

| title=The Drover's Wife

| artist=Russell Drysdale

| year=1945

| medium=oil on canvas

| height_metric=51.5

| width_metric=61.5

| metric_unit=cm

| imperial_unit=in

| city=Canberra

| museum=National Gallery of Australia

}}

The Drover's Wife is an oil painting on canvas executed in 1945 by Australian artist Russell Drysdale. 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.{{cite web|last=Gray|first=Anne|title=The Drover's Wife|url=http://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?View=LRG&IRN=76616|publisher=National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=2 November 2010}} The painting has been described as "an allegory of the white Australian people's relationship with this ancient land." Henry Lawson's 1892 short story "The Drover's Wife" is widely seen as an inspiration for the painting, although Drysdale denies that.[https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/the-drovers-wife-henry-lawson-helps-create-our-mona-lisa/news-story/b1b42467f44847864f8709f74bb404e2 "The Drover's Wife: Henry Lawson helps create our Mona Lisa"] by Frank Moorhouse, The Australian, 27 October 2017

The painting is now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.