BARRY, JAMES (1741-1806). An Irish painter. lie was born at Cork, October 11, 1741, the son of a sea captain and inn-keeper. It is said that in his youth he decorated his father's house with reproductions of Raphael's cartoons. A picture, "The Conversion of the King of Cashel by Saint Patrick," exhibited at Dublin, attracted the notice of Burke, who brought the painter to London and presently sent him to study in Paris and Rome. He returned to London in 1770, and exhibited his works with success. He was a man of high ideals, and a hard worker, ready to sacrifice his comfort for his art. His masterpiece is the series of six pictures, repre senting "Human Culture," painted upon the walls of the Great Room of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi; and this work he did without charge, though he had to engrave for print sellers at night in order to buy food. But with of spirit went a hot temper, which embroiled him constantly with other artists. He was elected to the Row' Academy in 1773, and in 17S2 was appointed professor of painting to the Academy. In his lectures, he severely criti cised other academicians, so that in 1799 he was deprived of his chair and expelled from the in stitution. During the remainder of his life he
was very poor. His friends• among whom were many of the celebrated men of the time, bought Barry an annuity of £120. but he did not live to receive the first payment. He died February 22, 1806, of pleuritic fever; his body lay in state in the Society of Arts and was buried in Saint Paul's.
Barry was a writer as well as a painter. His letters and works on art were collected and pub lished walla memoir (London, 1809). As a painter his technique was faulty, but his conceptions were of a lofty character. His best-known works are "The Victors of Olympia" (one of the deco rations in the Society of Arts) ; "Philoctetes in the Isle of Lemnos"; "Adam and Eve" (in the South Kensington Museum) ; "Death of General Wolfe" (curious because the painter represented all the figures as m(de) ; and "Venus Rising from the Sea." Consult : Colvin, "James Barry," The Portfolio (London, 1873) ; Wilmot Buxton, English and American Painters (New York, 1883) ; Cunningham's /.fires of the lost Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Archi tects (London, 1829-33).