John H. Glover - Hayfield near Primrose Hill

Hayfield near Primrose Hill, 1817

From Christie's Lot Notes: "John Glover's bucolic pastoral scene showing farm workers at work and resting after lunch on an English summer afternoon was set in what is now known as Regent's Park in London's inner north. Originally founded by Henry VIII following the dissolution of monasteries throughout the country, the land had subsequently been sold or gifted by The Crown to landholders for farming and pasture use. By 1817, however, the year in which 'Hayfield near Primrose Hill' was painted, Regent's Park had again reverted to The Crown and for five years the construction of terraces, villas and parklands designed by Sir John Nash had been underway.

The intrusion of the urban onto Glover's "celebration of rural life" (D. Hansen, John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque, Hobart, 2003, p.171) is, however, only hinted at in this idyllic scene of the privations and rewards of the honest labourer. The well-fed farm workers show no indication of the distress they must have been experiencing with the introduction of the protectionist Corn Law of 1815, which resulted in the substantial increase in the price of bread, leading to broad political unrest. Nor is there any hint of Nash's comprehensive redevelopment of Regent's Park, and the rapidly industrialising centre of London is only suggested by the grey clouds, chimney-stacks, and the spire of St. Mary's church in New Street, Marylebone, which had been constructed only four years earlier. ..."

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John H. Glover

Born: 18 February 1767 Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, England
worked in Australia 1831-49
Died: 09 December 1849 Deddington, Tasmania

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/tbio?tperson=6492

http://www.artnet.com/library/03/0328/T032888.asp