John Glover: The Artist

John Glover was a successful British painter and contemporary of Turner and John Constable. Glover painted in the picturesque style advocated by Claude Lorraine, taking the Grand Tour of Europe and wandering the moors and mountains of Britain in search of inspiration.

Glover immigrated to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) to join his children, arriving on 18 February 1831, coincidently his 64th birthday. He obtained one of the last large grants of land on the island, settling at Patterdale at Mills Plains, Deddington, 20 km from Evandale in 1832. Here he farmed and painted commissioned works for the landowners of the colony and landscapes for sale in London.
The quality of his painting changed in response to the strange landscape of this far-flung colony. He managed to capture its light and form with a freshness that preempted the Australian Impressionists, today he is known as the father of Australian landscape painting. Glover died in 1849 aged 82, he is buried at Nile Chapel, Deddington.

John Glover’s paintings are on display at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart and in major mainland galleries. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has a substantial collection and the Louvre in Paris also holds his work.

The John Glover $80,000 Acquisitive Prize

The John Glover Aquisitive Prize
Celebrating the legacy of John Glover, The John Glover Art Prize (Glover Prize) has become one of Australia’s most significant awards for landscape painting, open to artists from anywhere in the world.

It is awarded annually by The John Glover Society Inc. for the work judged the best contemporary landscape painting of Tasmania.

Landscape painting is defined in its broadest sense. The aim is to stimulate conversations about the meaning and possibilities expressed in the words landscape, painting and Tasmania.

The winner receives $80,000 plus a bronze maquette of colonial artist John Glover, designed by Peter Corlett and valued at $5000.

The Glover Prize is acquisitive, selected from around 40 works chosen by a panel of eminent judges. All other exhibitied entries are eligible for the (non-acquisitive) People’s Choice Award of $3000, the Children’s Choice Award of $500 and the Hanger’s Choice Award of $500.

The exhibition of finalists’ paintings is held over the March long-weekend in the historic Falls Park pavilion in Evandale, a village on the beautiful northern plains of Tasmania.