Moody's pub
(1941)
Medium
oil on plywood
Measurements
50.9 × 61.4 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1942
© Courtesy Russell Drysdale Estate
Gallery location
Gallery 8
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Moody’s pub is one of Russell Drysdale’s most celebrated paintings and among the most frequently reproduced images of twentieth-century Australian art. Based on the Royal Hotel on the Hume Highway at Seymour, the painting evokes Drysdale’s particular sense of humour in its observation of events from everyday life. A group of laconic country men are shown standing with hands on hips or dangling at their sides. As one of Drysdale’s earliest paintings of a street in an outback town, and the first painting by the artist acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria, Moody’s pub rapidly achieved iconic status.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Vaucluse, Sydney, New South Wales
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.r.: Russell Drysdale
Accession Number
1147-4
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
automobiles men (male humans) pubs roads street scenes verandah (exterior covered spaces)