4260 - Thomas Barker of Bath, attributed, On the Village Road

Thomas Barker of Bath, attributed, On the Village Road a poetic, summery, rural scene featuring an innkeeper and a beer cart driver chatting outside the inn, as well as a brushwood gatherer with a dog on the country road, set against a village backdrop with a windmill; a glazed genre painting, oil on canvas, first half of the 19th century, indistinctly signed ‘Barker pinx.’ in the lower left-hand corner, on the reverse of the stretcher, a modern label reading “Thomas Barcker England [sic.]”; according to the previous owner, probably Thomas Barker of Bath; some conservation issues; framed; inner dimensions approx. 46 x 61.5 cm. Artist information: known as Thomas Barker of Bath, English genre painter, draughtsman and lithographer (1767 or 1769, Trosant near Pontypool, Monmouthshire - 1847, Bath), son and pupil of the animal painter Benjamin Barker (died 1793), largely self-taught as an artist, brother of the landscape painter Benjamin Barker (1776-1838); his talent was discovered at an early age by the auctioneer and carriage builder Charles Spackmann, who took Barker on as an apprentice and encouraged him to copy Dutch masters such as Meindert Hobbema and British masters such as Thomas Gainsborough and Richard Wilson; subsequently, he created compositions drawing on the work of these three artists; with Spackmann’s support, in 1790-93, he undertook a study tour of Italy; from 1793 onwards, he returned to England as a genre painter, submitting works to the Royal Academy of Arts exhibitions from 1791 to 1829; four of his sons also became painters and emulated his work, practising in Bath. Source: AKL and the internet.