Museum number
A341
Object
Framed oil painting: Priscilla Jones by Thomas Barker (1769-1847), oil on canvas, c. 1802
Description
Young woman wearing poke bonnet of yellow straw, white dress, yellow shawl, and dark gloves. She appears framed between two massive Doric columns, and against a background of grey antique statues, so that the fresh colouring of her delicate complexion is enhanced by the deliberate contrast with the austere neo-classical setting. Barker married Priscilla a few years later, in 1803, in Walcot Church. She eventually bore him eight children, of whom all four sons became artists in turn. The eldest, Thomas Jones Barker, achieved success as a history painter; and the third, John Joseph, painted genre subjects, such as 'The Farmer's Lunch' (presented to the Holburne Museum in 1925).The portrait of Priscilla was kept in the Barker family, apparently as a companion to an earlier 'Self Portrait' painted by Thomas in about 1790 (very similar in pose to the version in the Holburne collection, though with a different work in progress depicted on the easel). The earlier 'Self Portrait' now belongs to the Tate Gallery, and is currently on loan to the Bath Preservation Trust, at 1, Royal Crescent, Bath.
Materials
Oil
On display?
Yes

Further description

Simple name
Painting
Subject
Portrait
Dimensions
framed: 7.5cm (d) x 94cm (h) x 80.5cm (w)
image size: 76.2cm (h) x 63.5cm (w)
Priscilla Jones Thomas Barker (1769-1847) Oil on canvas, about 1802 Thomas Barker’s young wife Priscilla is surrounded by allusions to antiquity. Dressed in a simple white gown, she stands among classical columns overlooking a garden filled with statues. Barker and Priscilla later built Doric House, a Greek Revival home on Sion Hill to the north of Bath. The composition is inspired by the Renaissance master Raphael. Four of the couple’s eight children became successful artists in their own right. The ‘Barkers of Bath’ dominated the city’s artistic life throughout the nineteenth century. Presented by the Art Fund, 1939 A341

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