The Tasmanian accommodation where art feeds the soul

The Henry Jones runs an artist-in-residence program, with featured artists working in a nook in the foyer. Suellen Saidee Cook, who creates surreal, imaginary environments by layering up to 50 photographs, is the most recent resident.

But the hotel’s freshest jewel – this year’s winner of the prestigious Glover Art Prize – now has pride of place in the elegant, softly lit Landscape Restaurant & Grill. This is a place so comfortable and attentive to detail that favoured regulars keep their personal steak knives in a special cabinet in the reception area.

Victoria-based artist Jennifer Riddle won the 2022 Glover prize – considered the Archibald of landscape painting – with her dramatic depiction of Tasmanian wilderness, inspired by trips to the waterways of isolated south-west Tasmania. “It’s hard to look at Port Davey’s pristine, remote landscape without feeling the enormity and impact of its presence,” she noted in her entry.

Renowned 19th century landscape artist John Glover, whom the Glover Prize honours, was similarly moved when he emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1831.

His more genteel, romanticised paintings, capturing the soft Tasmanian light and distant convict and Indigenous figures from the early settlement, dot the Landscape Restaurant’s main walls.

Much of the restaurant’s inspiration was drawn from Glover’s hopeful depiction of the early colony. Its main focus, though, is showcasing fresh seasonal produce from farmers around the state.

A point of distinction is the restaurant’s Asado grill. It is fired daily with wood from old sherry, bourbon or port casks supplied by the Tasmanian Cask Company. From there, head chef Nathaniel Embrey presents a menu that perfectly matches the elegant surrounds.

Starters might be freshly shucked oysters from Norfolk Bay, char-grilled Stanley octopus or kingfish sashimi.

For mains, a Cape Grim steak from Tasmania’s far north-western corner melts with Asado tenderness and flavour, paired, if you like, with hand-cut duck fat chips.

You might alternatively try the more delicate blue-eye trevalla with wood-fired greens, cauliflower, spanner crab and dashi butter. Or perhaps the Huon Berkshire cutlet with sweet corn and charred cabbage.

It could be Embrey’s hand or it could be Landscape’s easy-going cosiness, but it does seem that being surrounded by wonderful art adds another layer of flavour.

After dinner, if you’ve elected to stay the night, you might have the good fortune to walk upstairs to the luxurious H. Jones Suite, located in what was once the boardroom of H. Jones & Co.

All the rooms have their own distinctive qualities – exposed timber and brickwork, perhaps a remnant factory pulley hanging from the ceiling. But the top suite (from $740 a night) stands apart with its Tasmanian Blackwood ceilings and wall panelling and views of Hobart’s waterfront. And, of course, the art.

The writer was a guest of Henry Jones Art Hotel.