John Glover (artist)
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John Glover (18 February 1767 - 9 December 1849) was an Australian artist in what is known as the early colonial period of Australian art. In Australia he has been dubbed the father of Australian landscape painting.
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[edit] Life in Europe
Glover was born at Houghton-on-Hill in Leicestershire, England. His parents were farmer William Glover and Ann (nee Bright).
Glover achieved fame as a painter of "Italianate" romantic landscapes of Britain [including The falls of Foyers on Loch Ness, the Lake District and London] and Southern Europe. He became known in both England and France as the English Claude. This phrase was making comparison with Glover and the French seventeenth century artist Claude Lorrain, whose works collected by eighteenth century English "grand tourists", strongly influenced the evolution of the English style, in both painting and the layout of landscape gardens.[1]
[edit] Arrival in Australia
Glover arrived in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia on his 64th birthday in 1831, two decades before the goldrush of the 1850s. He brought with him a strong reputation as a landscape painter. He acquired one of the largest grants of land in Van Diemen's Land at the time at Mills Plains, Deddington. He named his new property Patterdale after Blowick Farm, a property near Patterdale, at the foot of Ullswater in the English Lake District, which he'd once owned.
[edit] Art in Australia
Glover is best known now for his paintings of the Tasmanian landscape. He gave a fresh treatment to the effects of the Australian sunlight on the native bushland by depicting it bright and clear, a definite departure from the darker "English country garden" paradigm.
His treatment of the local flora was also new because it was a more accurate depiction of the Australian trees and scrubland. Glover noted the "remarkable peculiarity of the trees" in Australia and observed that "however numerous, they rarely prevent your tracing through them the whole distant country".John Glovers most famous work was painted on his 79th Birthday.
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[edit] Australian legacy
The John Glover Society was established to honor and promote Glover's memory and his contribution to Australian art, and awards the Glover Prize in an annual Tasmanian art competition. [2] The prize is for a landscape painting of Tasmania and aims to reward the innovation and 'outward-looking' depiction that was characteristic of Glover's own work. The Society also erected a statue of Glover in the village of Evandale, a town close to his original farm of Patterdale.
John Glover's work features in many prominent art galleries throughout Australia (and the world). His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and a symposium in Australia.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ John Glover Society (2006-05-10). About John Glover. Glover Prize. Retrieved on May 25, 2006.
- ^ John Glover Society (2006-05-10). Glover Prize. Retrieved on May 25, 2006.
- ^ Glen Mulcaster. "Following Glover's footsteps", 2004-03-23. Retrieved on May 25, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Australian Painters. Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal. Retrieved on May 25, 2006.
