Джон Гловер: Отец австралийского пейзажа

English painter

John Glover (18 February 1767 – 9 December 1849) was an English born artist. In later life he migrated to Van Diemen’s Land and became a pastoralist during the early colonial period. He has been dubbed "the father of Australian landscape painting."

Glover decided to move to Australia, arriving in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) on his 64th birthday in 1831. Glover helped build the Chapel at Deddington and is buried within these grounds.

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. Note this example Patterdale Farm (circa 1840). 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". Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen’s Land (1838) but Glover had experience of aboriginal Tasmanian people elsewhere. John Glover's last major work was painted on his 79th birthday.

The John Glover Society was established on 22 August 2001 to honour and promote Glover's memory and his contribution to Australian art. The society commissioned a life size statue of Glover, unveiled in February 2003 in Evandale, Tasmania. It also runs the annual Glover Prize, which is held in Evandale. 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. From 2004, The John Glover Society has awarded the Glover Prize for depictions of Tasmanian landscapes. It is the richest art prize in Australia for landscape painting. In 2019, the farmhouse once occupied by the Glover family, southeast of Launceston, was restored and of surrounding land, which frequently featured in Glover's work, was heritage listed as 'Patterdale and Nile Farm'. In 2021, an early 19th century sketchbook, featuring 90 pages of Glover's sketches commencing from 1817, was placed up for auction with London auction house Ewbank's on 17 June 2021 with an original listing price of $5,500.