The River Wife draws on a story recounted in A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852–1853 by Ellen Clacy. The woman at its centre was never named, so here she is imagined as Jane.

Jane travelled from Liverpool to the Australian goldfields with her brother and fell in love during the voyage, promised marriage and a new life. But on the wedding day, the man never arrived. Soon after, Jane discovered she was pregnant. In the 19th century, abandonment and unmarried motherhood carried devastating social consequences.

Her child was born, but died only days later. Jane, weakened by grief and childbirth, was later found in the shallows of a river, still holding her baby to her chest.

In this work, Jane becomes both an individual woman and a wider symbol of loss, betrayal, and the countless women whose suffering was scarcely recorded. The River Wife honours her story with tenderness, dignity, and remembrance.

Open edition (limited time) with hand-torn edge and signed/titled by artist.

Archival print on cotton rag paper, square crop

20×20cm

28×28cm

Size listed is total print size.