Summary

Sculpture 'The Woman at the Cradle', created by Mr. Leon Wolowski in 1983. Leon arrived in Australia from Poland in 1949. When he retired in 1975 he took up sculpting. His works fall into two main categories, both of which depict ways of life which have long since disappeared. One of these is a collection of sculptures depicting the life of Jews in a Shtetl in Poland. The other group is 'The Australian Pioneers'. This topic was chosen because it too represents a way of life that no longer exists.

This sculpture forms part of Leon's Australian Pioneers collection, which illustrates the shared experiences of 'The Australian Pioneers' of the nineteenth century. The collection includes images of men working on the goldfields, men living and working in the bush, a convict and interaction between Aborigines and whites. Many of the sculptures depict life in the bush illustrating the theme of rural Victoria. Others show images of the working lives of men and women on the gold fields.

Physical Description

Clay sculpture of a man, woman and child on a rectangular base. The man is standing and is dressed in long pants, heavy boots, a long sleeved shirt, waist coat and hat. He holds a bucket on a long stick, which he is holding out over the cradle. The woman is seated on an upturned bucket and wears a long skirt, a shawl and a headscarf. In her arms is a baby wrapped in a blanket, one of her hands rests on the cradle's lever.

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