Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land

John Glover was already an established artist when he emigrated to Tasmania in 1831 at the age of 64. A highly successful watercolourist and painter of Arcadian views in the tradition of French landscapist Claude Lorrain, Glover quickly adapted his picturesque style and luminous technique to his new surrounds.

One of his most subjective works, this painting is informed by European notions of an Antipodean Arcadia, with Indigenous people living in a landscape unsullied by European contact. However, 'Natives on the Ouse River' stands in marked contrast to the actual situation of the traditional owners of Ouse River country - the Braylwunyer people of the Big River nation - which was one of dispossession and violence at the hands of the colonists.