About John Glover
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About John Glover
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Commemorative Statue
Courtesy of Allport Library and Museum
of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania.
of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania.
John Glover was the most important early 19th century landscape artist to work in Australia. He was born at Houghton-on-Hill, Liecestershire on 18 February 1767, son of William Glover and his wife Ann, nee Bright. On his 64th birthday in 1831, John Glover arrived in Van Diemen's Land [now Tasmania], bringing with him his reputation as "the English Claude", a painter of romantic landscapes of Britain and Southern Europe. Here in the colony his style transformed itself as he responded to the light and landscape of this island. He was the first to notice, if not the first to depict, the "remarkable peculiarity of the trees in this country: however numerous, they rarely prevent your tracing through them the whole distant country" The son of a farmer, John Glover acquired in the years of his success, Blowick Farm, neat Patterdale, at the foot of Ullswater in the English Lake District. In 1831, he obtained one of the last large grants of land in Van Diemen's Land, and the following year settled at Mills Plains [Deddington, near Evandale] on a property that he named Patterdale. Here, he farmed and painted, commissioned works for the proud landowners of the Colony, and landscapes for sale in London. Many of these now grace public galleries throughout Australia, as well as overseas. His last major work was completed on his 79th birthday. He died on the 9th December in 1849. avensglim@tassie.net.au |