Wright Barker

Wright Barker (16 July 1863 – 10 March 1941), known professionally as Wright Barker, but socially as John Wright Barker, was an English painter in oils. He specialised in painting domesticated animals, hunting, landscapes and portraits, but occasionally he depicted other subjects, such as Greek mythology. After training at the Académie Julian, he produced much of his work in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, although he also painted some pictures in the Scottish Highlands and in Poland. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in 1896.

Barker painted portraits of Count Potocki, the Duke and Duchess of Portland, Lord Barnby, the Duke of Peneranda of Spain, and Edward VII's dog Caesar. He also executed a bronze sculpture of the racehorse St Simon. His classical scene of Circe, now in the Cartwright Hall, Bradford, continues to attract comment.

Background

Barker's father, Benjamin Barker, was a weaving overlooker or supervisor. the daughter of Jonas Robinson, a shoemaker. Lydia Robinson was a worsted weaver. From at least 1871 Benjamin and Lydia Barker lived in Great Horton, Bradford, with their family.

Barker's birth name and professional name was Wright Barker, but he was known socially as John Wright Barker. he married Ellen Mary Alcock, Doris Wright Barker, PhD, who was a teacher and writer, Kathleen Frances Barker,

Barker was ill for a year before his demise, but his sudden death at 16 Duchy Road, Harrogate, while painting a study of sheep and lambs, was unexpected. The funeral was held at Stonefall Cemetery on 12 March. He and his wife are buried together in Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate.

Career

Barker was a painter, sculptor, He lived near Bradford School of Art and may have studied there, then moved to Hampstead in 1901. Barker's father-in-law's ownership of a 475-acre farm, employing nine farm workers, probably gave him a chance to create studies of draft horses and stock. and to meet other farmers. His hunting scenes are mostly of his local Rufford Hunt, in Nottinghamshire. He travelled twice to Poland to visit Count Potocki, painting his portrait and animal pictures. Three artworks (1884). In 1903 he exhibited And a Little Child Shall Lead Them. Studio of artist A.E. Perrin, Northampton (1894): Various works by Barker. Arthur Rigg's Galleries, Bradford (1895): paintings of animals. Royal Society of British Artists (RBA): twenty-eight occasions. Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham: one occasion. and other paintings. Middlesbrough Town Hall: Albert Edward Forbes, Second Lieutenant (1910–1920), oil on canvas. Mercer Art Gallery: Crossing the Ford, oil on canvas. Kirklees Museums and Galleries (includes Huddersfield Art Gallery): Scotch Cattle, oil on canvas; Devil's Bridge, oil on canvas. Ferens Art Gallery: Farm Horses and Foal at a Ford 1915, oil on canvas; Mansfield District Council: Tree and Rabbits (1894), oil on canvas. Horses in a Paddock, oil on canvas; Deer in a Forest, oil on canvas. Collection of Sir Thomas Shipstone, director of James Shipstone & Sons, Nottingham: the painting, Loch Ochray.

Reviews and responses

R. L. Commings comments on Barker's Circe (1889) in 2019:

Lizzie Enfield of the BBC details a 2020 response to the Circe (1889) thus:

However, by 2025, Errika Gerakiti of the Daily Art is referring to Orientalism, either as if Edward Said's book had never existed, or as if Orientalism were not a male gaze but something to be taken up and owned by a woman:

Popular culture Copies of at least four of Barker's signed paintings, Clearing the Forest (1890s), Three Horses Watering, Sheep in a Meadow and The Hunt (all painted by him before 1941), were sold by Waddingtons as 470-piece jigsaw puzzles at some point between the 1930s and 1960, as seen in the four Waddington's boxes below. During Barker's lifetime Waddingtons was based in Hunslet, and Keighley. Both locations were within the reach of Barker, who lived in Harrogate.