Bath in its relation to Art. 105; 



with the aid of a prosperous coach-builder, who sent him 

 to Rome. His celebrated picture, " The Woodman," sold 

 for 500 guineas, and commissions were given for copies at 

 high prices. Its popularity was shown by the skill of our 

 grandmothers, who reproduced it in silk and worsted ; 

 witness Miss Linley's notable example so long in Leicester 

 square. For half a century Thomas Barker exhibited at the 

 British Institution. One of his most remarkable works 

 was a large fresco in his own house, " The Inroad of the 

 Turks upon Scio." A brother, Benjamin Barker, also settled 

 in Bath, has been honoured by the title of the English 

 Poussin. His landscapes are greatly admired for their truth, 

 colour, and harmony. Of high repute also was a son of 

 Benjamin, Thomas Jones Barker, who after receiving his 

 artistic education in Bath, occupied a prominent position 

 many years in London. 



Thomas Lawrence, born at Devizes in 1769, 

 Sir T.Lawrence, ^^g placed at an early age under an artist in 



P.R.A., and ^^ , i i i tt tt- 



others. Bath, probably Hoare. His progress was so 



good that when only thirteen he received from 

 the Society of Arts a present of five guineas and a silver 

 pallet for copying in crayons the Transfiguration by Raphael. 

 And yet he supported himself by painting half-guinea like- 

 nesses of the fashionable people of Bath, thus however 

 acquiring the style which, through a long prosperous careei' 

 in London, made him the favourite painter of the upper 

 classes. Although out of chronological order it may be 

 mentioned here that Sir Frederic Leighton, now President 

 of the Royal Academy, spent some of his early years in Bath, 

 his parents then living in the Circus ; also that a dis- 

 tinguished member of the Academy, Mr Long, is a native 

 of the city, and began his successful career in it as a portrait 



