JOHN GLOVER

The Moss Collection, Sydney
Fine Australian Paintings, Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 August 2003, lot 140
Private collection, Western Australia; purchased from the above

Glover's painting technique involved the application of 'very thin, transparent layers – a watercolour technique in oil'.¹ In this work (as in many others), injudicious restoration in the past has led to the loss of the delicate surface in some areas, and introduced doubts regarding authorship.

However, the dimensions of this painting do correspond with one of the artist's standard size canvases (2 ft 4 in x 3 ft 8 in). More abstractly, the Picturesque composition, with its dark foreground and open, sunlit centre is a typical Glover formulation, as are the cattle at the river's edge and the various elements of staffage: the horsemen and loungers on the bridge, the washerwoman, the figures in the boat. The cloud-massed sky and the delicately-managed gold and lavender play of light from the middle-distance ridges to the foreground river bank are also typical – fine and original.

Moreover, the view is clearly identifiable from contemporary engravings² as the twin-arched packhorse bridge over the River Greta and the village of Keswick, north of Derwentwater, in Cumbria. The Lake District landscape was Glover's favourite painting ground, and Keswick was the subject of a number of his watercolours, the earliest exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1806. This painting is in all likelihood the Keswick exhibited at the Society of British Artists in 1828 (cat. no. 201).

We are most grateful to David Hansen for this catalogue entry.

1. Erica Burgess, "Glover's oil paintings: materials and techniques", in Hansen, D. et al., John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque,  Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery/Art Exhibitions Australia, Hobart,  2003, p. 246.
2. E.g. Edward Francis after William Westall, Keswick Bridge, engraving, from Great Britain Illustrated, Charles Tilt, London, 1830; William Le Petit after Henry Gastineau, Keswick from Greta Bridge, engraving, from Northern Tourist, Fisher, Son & Co., London, 1832-35.