The Thirsty Drover appeared nostalgic to the critics who reviewed the exhibition of the National Academy of Design in 1856. Indeed, this vignette of a cattle driver stopping for a drink at a farmhouse pictured a fast-disappearing custom of rustic life.
Francis William Edmonds, who helped pioneer the banking industry at the same time he worked as a painter, was heavily influenced by Dutch 17th-century painting. He appropriated from the Dutch the shallow stage-like space, strong diagonals, few figures and a palette of primary colors. Additionally, such carefully painted details as the hen and chicks, laundry in the baskets and flowerpot on the windowsill that add a domestic air to the scene are also characteristic of Netherlandish painting.
