Drysdale was born in Bognor Regis, England. In 1923 his family moved to Melbourne, Australia. He visited Europe in 1932 where he was influenced by the paintings of the post-impressionists and school of Paris and from 1935 to 1938 Drysdale studied under George Bell and Arnold Shore in Melbourne, then with Iain McNab at the Grosvenor School, London, and at La Grande Chaumière, Paris.
The war caused Drysdale to return to Australia in 1939, and despite intending to sign up to the military, he was prevented from doing so due to poor vision. Instead Drysdale moved to Sydney in 1940 and concentrated on his art and held his first solo exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in 1942.
He was one of the first Australian artists to examine the complex relationships between the landscape and inhabitants of inland Australia.
