BARRY. 



309 



Barry, to gratify a friend whom he very highly respected, 

 """ V ' had presented himself for a sitting to Barry at every 

 leisure moment wl ich he could command for near 

 two years. Barry constantly refused or evaded his 

 request, either pretending some indispensible engage- 

 ment, or alleging that he could not begin the por- 

 trait without at least one day's previous intimation. 

 In palliation of this ungracious conduct, it has been 

 said, that " a kind of ill humour had at that time 

 possessed Mr Barry, in consequence of the extreme 

 intimacy of the Burkes with Sir J. Reynolds, which 

 led him to suppose that these friends overlooked his 

 merits to aggrandize Sir Joshua's." This intended 

 apology serves only to aggravate his offence. For 

 surely if he could permit such a trifling circumstance 

 to counterbalance for a moment his numerous obli- 

 gations to the Burkes, he proved himself very un- 

 worthy of their kindness. Mr Burke naturally felt 

 some resentment on the occasion, but conducted him- 

 self with a degree of prudence and moderation high- 

 ly honourable to his character. After a mutual expla- 

 nation, the affair was adjusted; and Barry, to make 

 some atontrr.ent, finished the portrait in a style which 

 proved that he needed only to apply his talents to 

 portrait painting, to attain the highest eminence in 

 that line. 



His chief ambition, however, was to be engaged in 

 some great public undertaking; as if emulous of the 

 Italian masters, whose fame is in a manner identified 

 with the celebrity of their grand national edifices. 

 He therefore entered with eagerness into a proposal 

 made to him, in conjunction with other artists, for 

 decorating with paintings the interior of St Paul's. 

 To his great mortification, the scheme was relin- 

 quished for want of the consent of the archbishop of 

 Canterbury and the bishop of London. Another 

 prospect soon opened, equally flattering to his ambi- 

 tion ; for a proposal was made to the same artists, 

 for ornamenting with historical and allegorical paint- 

 ings the great room of the Society for the encourage- 

 ment of arts, manufactures, and commerce in the 

 Adelphi. The proposal was rejected by the artists 

 themselves, and Barry was again disappointed. 



During his residence in Rome, he had often been 

 insulted and provoked by hearing the inability of 

 British genius for the higher woiks of art, asserted 

 and maintained from the authority of Montesquieu, 

 Du Bos, and Wincleman. He therefore employed 

 the leisure which his disappointments now gave him, 

 in drawing up an ' Inquiry into the Real and Ima- 

 ginary Obstructions to the Acquisition of the Arts in 

 England," which he published in 1775. In this able 

 work, he very successfully confutes the absurd theories 

 of the above mentioned writers concerning the in- 

 fluence of climate ; and proves, from the history of 

 the fine arts in Greece and Italy, that they flourish 

 and decay, not according to the serenity or cloudiness 

 of the sky, but as the moral feelings of the people 

 are refined or depraved : to account for their slow 

 progress in our own country, he reminds us, that 

 when the rest of Europe was recovering a taste and 

 feeling for the beauties of panting and sculpture, 

 Englmd wa:: thrown out of the sphere of their at- 

 traction by the destructive fury of the reformers, by 

 political revolutions and civil dissensions, and by the 



general turn of the public mind to mechanical inven- 

 tions, to trade, manufactures, and commerce. He 

 presented the treatise to Mr Burke, who, instead of 

 receiving it with cold civility, as an illiberal critic 

 has very injuriously asserted, (see the 32d number of 

 the Edinburgh Review, art. 2.) returned the author 

 a warm and flattering acknowledgment " for his early 

 communication of his most ingenious performance, 

 throughout the whole of which there are many fine 

 thoughts and observations, very well conceived, and 

 very powerfully and elegantly expressed." 



As he had pledged himself in this enquiry for the 

 capability of British genius to excel in the fine arts, 

 he was anxious, to redeem the pledge by some produc- 

 tion of his own. He therefore undertook to execute 

 by himself the paintings for the great room of the So- 

 ciety of Arts, on condition that he should not be in- 

 terfered with, in the choice and prosecution of his 

 subjects. The history of painting cannot afford an 

 example of nobler and more disinterested ambition. 

 WJien he made this proposal, his whole property 

 amounted to only sixteen shillings ; and during seven 

 years of intense labour on this grand undertaking, he 

 was obliged to earn the means of a scanty subsistence, 

 by etching at night designs for the print-sellers, after 

 being fatigued with painting all the day. Of the 

 general design and particular subjects of these paint- 

 ings he has published a full explanation, to which we 

 refer our readers. We shall merely mention, that they 

 consisted of a series of six pictures, intended to illus- 

 trate the dependence of public and individual happi- 

 ness upon the cultivation of the human faculties. 

 Beginning with man in his savage state, full of in- 

 convenience, imperfection, and misery, he carries him 

 through the several gradations of culture and happi- 

 ness, which, after our probation here, are finally attend- 

 ed with beatitude or misery. The first picture repre- 

 sents the story of Orpheus ; the second a Harvest- 

 Home, or thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus ; the 

 third, the Victors at Olympia ; the fourth, Naviga- 

 tion, or the triumph of the Thames ; the fifth, the 

 Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts, &c. ; 

 and the sixth, Elysium, or the state of final retribu- 

 tion. When these paintings were finished, the soci- 

 ety expressed their satisfaction by granting him two 

 exhibitions, and voting him at different periods fifty 

 guineas, their gold medal, two hundred guineas more, 

 and a 6eat among themselves. The clear profits of 

 the exhibitions amounted to upwards of 500, and 

 he received besides several handsome remunerations 

 for portraits which he had copied into some of the 

 pictures. The paintings excited the admiration of 

 all who were qualified to judge of their merits. Jo- 

 nas Hanway, it is said, on quitting the room, de- 

 manded his shilling, and left a guinea in its place as a 

 payment more adequate to the pleasure which he had 

 received. And Dr Johnson observed, that there was 

 a grasp ol mind displayed in them which could be 

 found no where else. 



The remaining incidents in Barry's life are only 

 worth recording, as they serve to illustrate a truth, 

 which cannot be too frequently inculcated, that mo- 

 roseuess of temper, and rudeness of manner, will 

 aiwiys present an insuperable bar to the success of 

 talents however splendid, and accomplishments how- 



Barry. 



