The Falls of Foyers

Artist John Glover (Houghton-On-Hill, Leicestershire, England, 1767 - 1849)

Date1818

Mediumwatercolour on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsSight Size: Height: 29.6 cm, Width: 42.1 cm
Frame: Height: 60.9 cm, Width: 78.7 cm

AcquisitionAlexander Webster Bequest, 1921.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG002371

Keywords

About MePeople have been visiting the Falls of Foyers since long before the Caledonian Canal was opened in 1822. They may have been popularised by Robert Burns who wrote a poem about the Falls in 1787, but Scotland in general was becoming a popular destination for tourists and artists alike and Glover was just one of many who visited this famous beauty spot during the 19th century. Visitors could access the Falls by road, by steamboat from Inverness or by rowing across from the opposite side of Loch Ness.

John Glover worked as a writing master before discovering a talent for painting. Despite the fact that he was a large, heavy man with two clubbed feet, Glover was a keen tourist, travelling to Greece and Italy as well as to North Wales, the Lake District and to Scotland, areas which at the time, were regarded as the wilder parts of Britain but were being popularised by his contemporaries, including J.M.W. Turner.

Creating works of art that were inspired by his travels, Glover developed a reputation of being the famed painter of romantic landscapes and seemed to be particularly adept, as here, as capturing striking light effects, so much so that critics drew comparisons between his work and that of French seventeenth century artist, Claude Lorrain and he became known as “The English Claude.” On his 64th birthday in 1831, John Glover arrived in Van Diemen’s Land, now named Tasmania, being the only major artist to migrate to Australia before the gold rushes of the 1850s.
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Glover was known as the English Claude because the striking light effects he achieved in his paintings resembled those of the French master