James Barry, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1790–95

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “James Barry, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1790–95,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1301.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “James Barry, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1790–95,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 2, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1301.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This work was, until recently, attributed to Thomas Hazlehurst;¹ however, stylistic elements strongly align with those of his near-contemporary, the lesser-known artist James Barry.² These shared qualities include Barry’s distinctive linear brushwork, employed vertically throughout the portrait, except for the intricately textured hair.³ In the present work, Barry does not reduce the sitter’s hair to the size of the composition; instead, the powdered wig assumes a substantial, organic form that resembles the cloudy background and reaches toward the margin of the frame. While the subject’s attire is understated, his stylish hair takes on a life of its own.

James Barry’s miniatures are characterized by his highly detailed yet layered rendering of hair; distinctive angular, boomerang-shaped eyebrows; and a three-quarters profile view. He skillfully employs heavy shadows beneath his sitters’ lower eyelids and at the bottom corners of their mouths, creating small but full lips, with well-defined, M-shaped cupid’s bows. While the palette of this portrait is somewhat limited, the sitter’s deep sea-blue eyes harmonize with the blue of his high-collared coat. A fleck of white also appears in the top right of his pupils.

The sitter’s identity and the exhibition history of this miniature remain unknown, although Barry exhibited a miniature titled Portrait of a Gentleman at the Royal Academy in 1791 and 1793.⁴ Barry frequently exhibited there between 1784 and 1827; among his subjects were a celebrated actress, multiple clergymen, and a comedian.⁵ Nonetheless, the absence of signatures on his works, as is the case with so many miniaturists, obscures the full extent of his skill and talent—and leaves the identities of many of his portrait subjects in mystery.

Notes

1. Many thanks to miniature specialist Bernd Pappe, who narrowed down the date and suggested the attribution change from Hazlehurst to Barry during his visit to the Nelson-Atkins, July 24–26, 2023. Notes in NAMA curatorial file.

2. For a very similar work, see James Barry, William Linley 1771–1835, watercolor on ivory, 2 1/16 x 1 1/2 in. (5.3 x 3.8 cm), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 3821, https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/17594.

3. The way the hair is drawn resembles the drawings by James Barry, but erroneously attributed to John Barry (flourished 1784–1827), at the Royal Academy, among them Reading the News, by 1827, pencil and watercolor on cream wove paper, 9 3/4 x 15 1/32 in. (24.8 x 38.2 cm), Royal Academy, London, 03/5033, https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/reading-the-news.

4. The Exhibition of the Royal Academy (London: T. Cadell, 1791), 23:11, 25:14. Barry may have charged about fifty guineas around this time for a miniature, according to an inscription on one of his portraits: “a / Miniature / of / Captain / N. [illeg.] / when in the 11th Regt / of foot / painted by Barry / the celebrated Irish / Miniature Painter / in or about the / year 1793 - / 50 guineas he / received for / painting it - .” See John Barry, Portrait Miniature of Captain Nathaniel Burslem, ca. 1793, watercolor on ivory, 2 1/2 in. (6.5 cm) high, sold at Chiswick Auctions, March 30, 2021, lot 449, https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/449-john-barry-irish-1784-1827/?lot=143784. However, this price seems extremely expensive, considering that the more celebrated miniaturist Richard Cosway (1742–1821) charged only forty guineas for a drawing a few years earlier, in 1789; Stephen Lloyd, “The Cosway Inventory of 1820,” Volume of the Walpole Society 66 (2004): 171.

5. To be exact, he exhibited in 1784–87, 1789–94, 1796–1809, 1816–19, 1825, and 1827. Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors (London: Henry Graves and George Bell and Sons, 1905), 1:132–33.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 192, as by Thomas Hazelhurst, Unknown Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 192, p. 65 (repro.), as by Thomas Hazelhurst, Unknown Man.