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ART IN TASMANIA
The State's Early Painters
Work of Bock
By Henry Allport. (Second Article.)
At much the same time that Lycett
was leaving Australia, a young man
who was destined to become the fore-
most portrait painter of the colony ar-
rived in Van Diemen's Land. Thomas
Bock was born at Sutton Coldfield,
near Birmingham, in 1790, and quite
early showed a predilection for music
and art. In his early years he was a
chorister, under Sterndale Bennet, in
Lichfield Cathedral, and as he grew to
manhood was apprenticed to an en-
gravcr in Birmingham, where he work-
ed with W. Wzon, who later became
engraver to the Mint. After finishing
his apprenticeship he moved to Lon-
don, and established himself as an en-
graver and miniature painter. Whe-
ther he met with material success in
this venture we do not know, but if he
failed it was not through lack of skill,
for in 1817 he received the silver medal
of the Society of Arts and Commerce
of England for an engraving of a por-
trait. The reason for his leaving Eng-
land is unknown, and even the date
of his arrival in Van Diemen's
Land cannot be stated with accuracy,
but we are quite safe in saying that
he was here in the early twenties.
In 1824 he won the approbation of the
local press for the manner in which he
had engraved the plate of a four dollar
bill for the Bank of Van Diemen's
Land. It was, however, as a portrait
painter that Bock soon became famous.
His first studio was in Lower Liverpool
Street, but later he moved to a house,
No. 22 Campbell Street, situate some
little distance above the gaol. It was
while residing there that he painted
portraits of most of the principal people
of Hobart Town until his death in 1855.
Oil, watercolour, and crayon were all
used by Bock at different times in the
execution of his portraits, but it was
perhaps with crayons that he produced
his happiest results. In this medium
he shows a wonderful facility in re-
cording, not only a likeness, but also
the character of his sitter-the eyes
being particularly expressive.
BOCK'S SONS.
Throughout his life Bock retained
keen interest in music, and did much
to encourage the sister art in the young
capital of the colony. He imported
from Broadwood's a first-class square
framed piano which he generously al-
lowed to be used for important con-
certs. Mrs. Chester and her brother,
Vincent Wallace, the composer of the
opera "Maritana," which was largely
composed in Bock's house, were among
those who used this instrument for
their concerts. When Thomas Bock
died he left five sons, to two of whom
at least he transmitted some of his own
artistic gifts. Alfred, the eldest, was
an engraver and painter of portraits
both in oils and watercolour, and also
painted landscapes in watercolour. In
1862 he engraved the dies for the well-
known St. George and Dragon series
of Tasmanian revenue stamps. It was
he also who first introduced photo-
graphy into Tasmania in the shape of
the daguerreotype, and built up a busi-
ness which he carried on successfully
for some years, until he removed to
Victoria. In 1920 he died at Wynyard,
in the land of his birth, at an advanced
ago.
Another son, William R. Bock, still
lives at Wellington, New Zealand, where
for many years he worked as engraver
to the Government. The result of the
tuition he received from his father and
his brother Alfred, is also seen in the
many beautifully illuminated addresses
which he from time to time prepared
for presentation to distinguished citi-
zens and visitors. On the visit of the
present Duke and Duchess of York to
the Dominion a few years ago he was
commissioned to prepare several of the
addresses presented to their Royal
Highnesses.
JOHN GLOVER.
In 1831 there landed in Van Diemen's
Land the first artist who had built up
for himself a really imposing reputa-
tion previous to his arrival in Austra-
lia. For some unknown reason, John
Glover, at the age of 64, decided to leave
the land of his birth, and the scene of
many triumphs and some disappoint-
ments, for the purpose of forming a new
home in the Antipodes.
At an early age his artistic talent
showed itself, and his father, a poor
but industrious farmer, unlike so many
fathers of artists, did not discourage his
bent. Ho received a "good, plain, and
Christian education," and at the age of
19 received an appointment as drawing
and writing master in the Free School
at Appleby, in Leicestershire. He also
took up the study of music, in which he
is stated to have been a "distinguished
performer." About this time he married
a woman six years his senior, who, after
spending some 60 years of happy married
life with him, outlived him by four years.
In 1794 Glover removed to Lichfield,
where he set up as a drawing master,
"teaching pupils both public and pri-
vate." He was at once successful, and
before long was making a very good in-
come, as his fee books attest. In 1795
he exhibited three landscapes at the
Royal Academy. His work was at once
appreciated, and, according to "The
Gentleman's Magazine," vol. xxiv., 1850,
p. 96, admirers of his paintings consid-
ered him a rival of Turner. This period
of Glover's life has a personal interest
for me, for in 1803 the names of my own
ancestors, Henry Curzon Allport and
Mary Ann Allport, first appear in his
fee books among his pupils. This same
Henry Curzon Allport in 1808 set up,
with Glover's sons, John and William,
as drawing-masters at Birmingham,
and in 1839 emigrated to Sydney, where
he worked as an artist until his death
in 1854.
In 1805 John Glover joined the Society
of Painters in Water-colour, and in the
same year removed to London, where
success awaited him. He sold as many
pictures as he could paint-besides hav-
ing numerous pupils - and three years
later Farington says, "Glover receives
two guineas for a lesson of three hours."
In 1807, John Glover, John Varley,
George Barret, and Joshua Cristall
formed the committee for the exhibition
of the Water-colour Society. On No-
vember 30, 1807, he was elected presi-
dent, in succession to W. F. Wells. In
1814 Glover went to Paris, where he
studied carefully the vast collection of
pictures which Napoleon had assembled
from various countries at the Louvre,
While in Paris he painted and exhibit-
ed at the Salon a very fine landscape,
and Louis XVIII, ordered a gold medal
to be struck in its honour. This was
prevented by the return of Napoleon,
who, however, also admired the pic-
ture, and sent is with a medal to Eng-
land, whither Glover had already fled.
It was Glover's ambition to be known
as the English Claude, whose work he
admired above all the old masters, and
many of his Italian compositions bear
a strong impress of his hero's style.
In 1830 Glover held a clearing sale
of his pictures, and being now a wealthy
man (according to some authorities
worth £60,000), he shortly afterwards
emigrated to Van Diemen's Land.
ARRIVAL IN TASMANIA.
Upon arrival at Hobart he appears to
have only stayed long enough to enable
him to secure an extensive tract of land
on the northern slopes of Ben Lomond,
adjoining the River Nile. Here he
formed his new home, which he called
Patterdale, after a favourite locality
in the English lake district. Surround-
ed by his children and grand-children,
occupied with the management of his
sheep farm, and happy in the continu-
ance of his art, he led a sort of patri-
archal existence. In the latter years
of his life he spent much time in read-
ing religious books, and quietly passed
to his long rest on December 9, 1849
"having lived at peace with all men in
this world." All accounts agree as to
his amiable disposition, his frugal and
industrious habits, and that he was
high-principled in himself and an ad-
mirer of correct deportment in others.
(To be continued.)
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