BARRY, JAMES (1741-1806), British painter, was born at Cork on Oct. II, 1741. His picture of the "Conversion by St. Patrick of the King at Cashel" (1763) brought him the acquaint ance and friendship of Edmund Burke, who, with other friends, sent him abroad to study art. In 1773 he was elected R.A., and he exhibited pictures on classical and historical subjects in the Academy year by year until 1776. Of these the most famous is the "Death of General Wolfe," familiar through numerous en gravings. The reason why he ceased to exhibit at the Academy seems to have been annoyance at the reception of this picture. He was expelled from the Academy in 1799 on account of his Letter to the Dilettanti Society, which expressed a good deal of contempt for his contemporaries. In 1773 he published An In quiry into the Real and Imaginary Obstructions to the Acquisition of the Arts in England, vindicating the capacity of the English for the fine arts and indicating some of the circumstances which had prevented their progress. In 1777 he agreed to decorate the interior of the hall of the Society of Arts in the Adelphi, a task which occupied him for seven years.
Barry died on Feb. 22 1806. By his irascible temper and his frequent attacks on other artists he made many enemies. Never theless Burke never seems to have failed him, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, on whom his most violent attacks had been made, for gave him. But Barry outlived these friends, and the last years of his life were spent in rather gloomy solitude at his house off Oxford Street, London.