The adventures and life of Ben Boyd inspired David Boyd to paint the Wanderer series. Ben Boyd, a London banker of Scottish origin was a whaler, merchant banker and pastoralist. He arrived in Australia in the 1840s and built Boyd Town, a town that rivaled the Port of Sydney for its capacity to ship wool and whale oil. After the collapse of his empire Ben Boyd sailed away on his yacht, Wanderer, eventually being killed by natives.

David Boyd’s series in no way records historical events, but rather the artist playfully depicts a man’s aspirations and life as an eternal wanderer. The paintings are romantic, playful and lyrical. Reviewed by Lou Klepac in The News, March 19, 1970, the series was described as “…pure pictorial abandon…a fairy-tale world which is pleasant to look at, sweet and innocent.”