Thomas jones barker biography for kids age

Thomas Barker or Barker of Bath — 11 December , was a British painter of landscape and rural life. Barker was born in , at Trosnant near the village of Pontypool , in Monmouthshire. He eventually took up employment as a Japanware decorator. From an early age Barker showed a remarkable talent for drawing figures and designing landscapes, although he never took a lesson in either drawing or painting and was entirely self-taught.

Thomas Jones Barker (19 April – 29 March ) was an English historical, military, and portrait painter.

When he was sixteen his family moved to Bath where the patronage of an opulent coach-builder named Charles Spackman allowed him to follow his talent as an artist. During the first four years he employed himself in copying the works of the old Dutch and Flemish masters. At the age of twenty-one he was sent to Rome with ample funds to maintain his position there as a gentleman.

While there he painted very little, contenting himself with society life.

Thomas Jones Barker was born in Bath, England in , the eldest son of a prominent painter, Thomas Barker.

Barker was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the British Institution for almost fifty years, during which period he exhibited nearly one hundred pictures. He was a prolific artist, and painted a wide range of subjects. Few pictures of the English school are more generally known and appreciated than The Woodman , of which it appears two were painted, both of them from nature, and of life size: the first was sold to Mr.

Macklin for guineas; the second, for the same amount, became the property of Lord W. In he painted the Trial of Queen Caroline , which included portraits of many celebrated men; but perhaps the best effort of Barker's pencil skill was the fresco , 30 feet in length, and 12 feet in height, representing The Inroad of the Turks upon Scio, in April, , painted on the wall of his residence, Sion Hill , Bath.

When Barker's talents were in full vigour, no artist of his time had a greater hold on popular favour; his pictures of The Woodman , Old Tom painted before he was seventeen years of age , and gipsy groups and rustic figures, were copied onto almost every possible material: Staffordshire pottery , Worcester china , Manchester cottons, and Glasgow linens.

At one time he amassed considerable property by the sale of his works, and spent a large sum in building a mansion for his residence, enriching it with sculpture and other works of art. He died at Bath in