1000 FROG POEMS: 1000 BOSS DROVERS ("YELLOW LEAF FALLING") FOR H.S. 1996–2014 comprises 2400 individual drawings, all deliberately executed as if by the hand of a child. Over a 20-year period, Robert MacPherson made these in the guise of his 10-year-old alter ego, ‘Robert Pene’. All the boss drovers’ names are those of real people, whose histories are known or documented, depicted imaginatively by Pene with a portrait, name and sometimes a caption.

In the pages that follow, learn the real-life stories behind a selection of the drovers. Learn more about the work of Robert MacPherson in The Painter’s Reach.