In 1901, McCubbin  purchased 'Fontainebleau’, Mount Macedon, the surrounding landscape providing inspiration and the setting for a number of well known paintings, including The Pioneer.

The Clearing uses textured brushstrokes and the technique of scraping the paint with a palette knife, to build up the density of the broken bushland; a cleared path of warm brown tones contrasted with the inpenetrable tangle of the scrubby background painted in greens and purple tones. Feathery leaves reach to the light sky, the vertical trunks standing against the diagonal composition. The viewer is drawn into the image through the central path, the close up intimacy a foil for the distant view.