The bath of Diana, Van Diemen's Land 1837

John Glover painted ‘The Bath of Diana, Van Diemen's Land’ to depict the Tasmanian landscape and its Indigenous people. But the European title, referencing the Roman goddess of the hunt, is a colonial imposition that romanticizes and classicalizes the scene. Painted in the 1830s after Glover migrated to Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania, the painting reflects his vision of harmonious coexistence. However, this vision ignores the brutal realities of colonial expansion and the displacement of Aboriginal communities. While the landscape is rendered with a degree of accuracy, the inclusion of Aboriginal people in a peaceful, almost Edenic setting, obscures the violence and dispossession they faced. Glover’s work highlights the power dynamics inherent in colonial art. By studying historical archives, colonial records, and anthropological studies, we can uncover the complex social and political context in which this painting was made and challenge its idealized representation of colonial life.