The bath of Diana, Van Diemen's Land, 1837 - John Glover

1837 - The bath of Diana, Van Diemen's Land

John Glover

Oil on canvas

H 96.5 x W 134.5 cm

National Gallery of Australia

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Bioregion: Ben Lomond (16% protected)3

Humid cool/cold mountain ranges situated in Tasmania’s inland north-east. The mountains are capped by Jurassic dolerite with shallow gradational soils. Silurian-Devonian siltstones and mudstones covered with gradational soils constitute a substantial part of the lower hills. Lowland vegetation comprising mainly open sclerophyll woodlands and heath while the upper slopes consist of wet sclerophyll forests, some rainforest and alpine vegetation in the highest regions. Land use: forestry, mining and agriculture (grazing).4

John Glover5

John Glover RBA (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. He brought with him a strong reputation as a landscape painter. From April 1831 until early 1832 he lived in Hobart on a property named "Stanwell Hall", which can be seen in his work Hobart Town, taken from the garden where I lived. In 1832 he acquired one of the largest grants of land in Van Diemen's Land at the time at Mills Plains, Deddington. 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".

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