BARKER family, of Pontypool, etc., artists.

BENJAMIN BARKER (died 1774?), foreman and enamel painter at the japan works, Pontypool, expert at painting sporting and animal figures

According to the Trevethin church register (quoted by Sir Joseph A. Bradney), he was paid six guineas in 1774 for painting a royal coat of arms. A sporting scene painted by him on japanware is in the N.M.W. His sons, Thomas Barker, R.A., and Benjamin Barker II, distinguished themselves as landscape and subject painters, whilst the sons of his son Thomas, viz. Thomas Jones Barker and JOHN JONES BARKER were also artists.

THOMAS BARKER (1769 - 1847), landscape and subject painter

Son of Benjamin Barker of Pontypool, was born at Trosnant, Pontypool, 1769, and displayed a talent for drawing when very young. He settled at Sion Hill House, Bath, which he adorned with a fresco. His ' Woodman and his dog in a storm ' and ' Landscape ' are in the National Gallery, London. A collection of his lithographs was issued in 1813 and another appeared the following year. He went to Rome in 1790 and stayed there for three years. He was in demand at Bath as a painter of landscape and rustic subjects after the style of Gainsborough. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and elsewhere. He died 11 December 1847.

BENJAMIN BARKER II (1776 - 1838), landscape and subject painter

Son of Benjamin Barker of Pontypool and brother of Thomas Barker, of Bath. Born at Pontypool, 1776. Among his works are 'Brecon town and bridge' and 'Road leading to Pont Aberglaslyn.' Forty-eight of his pictures were engraved by Thales Fielding in aquatint. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and elsewhere. He died 2 March 1838 at Totnes.

THOMAS JONES BARKER (1815 - 1882), artist

Son of Thomas Barker 'of Bath '. (His mother was a Jones and a native of Monmouthshire.) When he was 19 he went to the studio of Horace Vernet, Paris, with whom he collaborated later on several pictures. Among his portraits are those of Benjamin Disraeli and General Nelson. He also painted 'General Williams and staff leaving Kass,' 'Napoleon at Bassano,' 'The intellect and valour of Great Britain,' 'Lord Clive's relief of Lucknow,' and 'The Allied generals before Sebastopol.' He exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1845-76, and at other galleries. He died in London, 27 March 1882.

Author

Reverend Thomas Mardy Rees, (1871 - 1953)

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Michael Bryan, Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers
T. M. Rees, Welsh painters, engravers and sculptors, 1527â€“1911 (1912)

Published date: 1959

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