Barry, James, (1)

Barry, James, (1), a historical painter of the British school, was born at Cork, Ireland, in 1741. He was educated in the school of Mr. West at Dublin, where, at the age of twenty- two, he gained the prize for a historical picture representing the arrival of St. Patrick on the coast of Cashel. In 1770 he went to England, and exhibited in the Royal Academy his Adam and Eve, and the year following his Venus Anadyomene. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1777, and professor of painting in that institution, but on account of misconduct was obliged to resign. He struggled with his evil genius, poverty, and neglect, and died in the greatest indigence at London in February, 1806. The principal works of this great artist are the series of pictures in the Adelphi. which are best described by himself in his pamphlet, and which he terms a Series of Pictures on Human Culture.