In the spring of 1771, Mr Barry arrived in Eng land, after an absence of five years. He soon after produced his picture of Venus, which has been compared to the Galatea of Raphael, the Venus of Titian, and the Venus of Medicis, without reason. Mr Barry flattered himself that he had surpassed the famous statue of that name, by avoiding the appear ance of maternity in it. There is an engraving of it by Mr Valentine Green. In 1773, he exhibited his Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida, which was much praised by some critics of that day. His Death of General Wolfe was considered as a falling off from his great style of art, which consisted in painting Greek subjects, 'and it accordingly is said to "'have obtained no praise." His fondness for Greek costume was assigned by his admirers as the cause of his re luctance to paint portraits ; as if the coat was of more importance than the face. His fastidiousness, in this respect, and his frequent excuses, or blunt refusals, to go on with a portrait of Mr Burke, which he had begun, caused a misunderstanding with that gentleman, which does not appear to have been ever entirely made up. The difference between them is said to have been widened by Burke's growing intimacy with Sir Joshua, and by Barry's feeling some little jealousy of the fame and fortune of his rival in an humbler walk of the art. He, about the same time, painted a pair of clas sics:I subjects, Mercury inventing the lyre, and Narcissus looking at himself in the water, the last -suggested to him by Mr Burke. He also paint- P ed an historical picture of Chiron and Achilles, and another of the story of Stratonice, for which last the Duke of Richmond gave bim a hundred guineas. In 1773, there was a plan in contem plation for our artists to decorate the inside of St Paul's with historical and sacred subjects ; but this plan fell to the ground, from its not meeting with the concurrence of the Bishop of London and the Arch bishop of Canterbury, to the no small mortification of Barry, who had fixed upon the subject he was to paint,—the rejection of Christ by the Jews when Pilate proposes his release. In 1775, he published An Inquiry into the real and imaginary Obstructions to the Acquisition of the Arts in England, vindicating the capacity of the English for fine arts, and tracing their slew progress hitherto to the Reforma tion ; to political and civil dissensions ; and, lastly, to the general turn of the public mind to mechanics, manufactures, and commerce. In the year 1774, shortly after the failure of the scheme for decorating St Paul's, a proposal was made, through Mr Valen tine Green, to the same artists, Reynolds, West, Cipriani, Barry, &c. for ornamenting the great room , of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Ma niffictures, and Commerce, in the Adelphi, with histo rical and allegorical paintings. This proposal was, at the time, rejected by the artists themselves.; but, in 1777, Mr Barry made an offer to paint the whole himself, on condition of being allowed the choice of his subjects, and being paid the expense of canvass, paints, and models, by the Society. This offer was accepted, and he finished the series of pictures at the end of seven years, instead of two, which he had -proposed to himself, but with entire satisfaction to the members of the Society, for whom it was intend ed, and who conducted themselves to him with libe rality throughout. They granted him two exhibi tions, and at different periods voted him 50 guineas, their gold medal, and again 200 guineas, and a seat among them. Dr Johnson remarked, when he saw the pictures, that, "whatever the hand had done, the head had done its part." There was an excellent anonymous criticism, su posed to be by Mr Burke, published on them, in answer to some remarks put forth by Barry, in his descriptive catalogue, on the ideal style of art, and the necessity of size to gran deur. His notions on both these subjects are very ably controverted, and, indeed, they are the rock on which Barry's genius split. It would be curious if Mr Burke were the author of these strictures ; for it is not improbable that Barry was led into the last error, here deprecated, by that author's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. The series consists of six pictures, showing the progress of human culture. The first represents Orpheus taming the savages by his lyre. The figure of Orpheus himself is more like a drunken bacchanal than an inspired poet or lawgiver. The only part of this picture which is va luable is the background, in one part of which a lion is seen ready to dart upon a family group milking near a cave, and, in another, a tyger is pursuing a horse. There is certainly a scope of thought and picturesque invention, in thus showing indirectly the protection which civilization extends, as it were, over both man and animals. The second picture is a Gre cian harvest, which has nothing Grecian in it. But we cannot apply this censure to the third picture of the Olympic games, some of the figures in which, and the principal group, are exceedingly graceful, classical, and finely conceived. This picture is the only proof Mr Barry has left upon canvass that he was not utterly insensible to the beauties of thcart. The figure of the young man on horseback really reminds the spectator of some of the Elgin and the outlines of the two youthful victors at the games, supporting their father on their shoulders, are excellent. The colouring is, however, as bald and wretched in this picture as the rest, and there is a great want of expression. The fourth picture is the triumph of commerce, with Dr Burney swimming in the Thames, with his hair powdered, among naked sea-nymphs. The fifth, the Society of Arta, distri buting their annual prizes. And the sixth represents Elysium. This last picture is a collection of carica tured portraits of celebrated individuals of all ages
.and nations, strangely jumbled together, with a huge allegorical figure of Retribution driving Heresy, Vice, and Atheism, into the infernal regions. The moral design of all these pictures is much better explained in the catalogue than on the canvass; and the artist has added none of the graces of the pencil to it in any of them, with the exception above made. Mr Barry appears, however, to have rested his preten sions to fame as an artist on this work, for he did lit tle afterwards but • paltry engravings from himself, and the enormous and totally worthless picture of Pandora in the assembly of the gods. His self-de nial, frugality, and fortitude, in the prosecution of his work at the Adeiphi, cannot be too much applauded. He has been heard to say, that at the time of his undertaking it, he had only 16s. in his pocket ; and that he bad often been obliged, after painting all day, to sit up at night to sketch or engrave some design for the jirintsellers, which was to supply him with his next day's subsistence. In this manner he did his prints of Job, dedicated to Mr Burke, of the Birth of Venus, Polemon, • Head. of Chatham, King Lear, from the picture painted for the Shakespear gallery, &c. His prints are caricatures even of his pictures ; they seem engraved on rotten wood.
Soon after Mr Barry's return from the Continent, he was chosen a member of the-Royal Academy ; and in 1782, was appointed professor of painting, in the room of Mr Penny, with a salary of L. 80 a year. The lectures which he delivered from the chair were full of strong sense, and strong advice, both to the students and academicians. Among other things, he insisted much on the necessity of purchasing a collection of pictures by the best mas ters as models for the students, and proposed seve ral of those in the Orleans collection. This recom mendation was not relished by the academicians, who, perhaps, thought their own pictures the best models for their several pupils. Bickerings, jea and quarrels arose, and at length reached such aheight, that, in 1799, Mr Barry was expelled from the academy, soon after the appearance of his Letter to Me Dilettanti Society; a very amusing, but eccentric publication, full of the highest enthusiasm for his art, and the lowest contempt for the living professors of it. In 1800, he undertook a design or drawing to celebrate the union of the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The profits of the two exhibitions of the Adelphi pictures are said to have amounted to above L. 500. Lord Romney presented him with 100 guineas for his portrait, which had been copied into one of the pictures, and he had 20 guineas for a head of Mr Hooper. He probably received other sums for portraits intro duced into the work. By extreme frugality he contrived, not only to live, but to save money. His house was twice. robbed of sums which be kept by him ; one of the times (in 1794) of up wards of L.100 ; a loss which was made up by the munificence of Lord Radnor, and „by that of his friends, the Hollis's. After the loss of his sa lary, a subscription was set on foot by the Earl of Buchan to relieve him from his difficulties, and to settle him in a larger house to finish his picture of Pandora. The subscription amounted to L.1000, ' with which an annuity was bought ; but of this he was prevented from enjoying the benefit; for, on the 6th of February 1806, he was seized with a pleuritic fever, and as he neglected medical assistance at first, it was afterwards of no use. After lingering on for a fortnight in considerable pain, but without losing his fortitude of mind, he died on the 22d of the same month. On the 18th of March, the body was taken to the great room of the Society of Arts, and was thence attended, the following day, by a numerous and respectable train of his friends to the cathedral of St Paul's, where it was deposited.
Mr Barry, as an artist, a writer, and a man, was dis tinguished by great inequality of powers and extreme contradictions in character. He was gross and refined at the same time ; violent and urbane ; sociable and sullen.; inflammable and inert ; ardent and phlegmatic; relapsing from enthusiasm into indolence ; irritable, brong, impatient of restraint ; captious in his intercourse with his friends, wavering and desultory in his profession. In his • personal habits be was careless of appearances or decency, penurious, slo venly, and squalid. He regarded nothing but his immediate impulses, confirmed into incorrigible ha bits. His pencil was under no control. His eye and his hand seemed to receive a first rude impulse, to which it gave itself up, and paid no regard to any thing else. The strength of the original impetus only drove him farther from his object. His genius constantly flew off in tangents, and came in contact with nature only at salient points. There are two drawings of his from statues of a lion and a lioness at Rome ; the nose of the lioness is two strait lines ; the ears of the lion two curves, which might be mis taken for horns; as if, after it had taken its first direc tion, he lost the use of his hand, and his tools work ed mechanically and monotonously without his will. His enthusiasm and vigour were exhausted in the conception; the execution was crude and abortive. His writings are a greater acquisition to the art than his paintings. The powers of conversation were what he most excelled in ; and the influence which he ek ercised in this way over all companies where he came in spite of the coarseness of his dress, and the fre: quentrudeness of his manner, was great. Take him ,for all in all, he was a man of whose memory it is impossible to think without admiration as well as re gret. (z.)