Shared Experience: Soldier

Art and War

Accession Number: ART92623

Russell Drysdale
Soldier
oil on hardboard
60.3 x 40.7cm

Between Victoria and New South Wales the railway track gauge changed at Albury Railway Station. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen often found themselves on cold windswept platforms late at night, waiting to change trains. In this painting, Drysdale captures the loneliness and uncertainty of a tired soldier, slumped against the wall of the station, waiting for the train that will take him to his next posting. The solitary figure, huddled in his great coat with his slouch hat on his head, is a uniquely Australian image.