Andrew Plimer, Portrait of Andrew Francis Barnard, later General Barnard, ca. 1794

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “Andrew Plimer, Portrait of Andrew Francis Barnard, later General Barnard, ca. 1794,” 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. 3, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1469.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “Andrew Plimer, Portrait of Andrew Francis Barnard, later General Barnard, ca. 1794,” 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. 3, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1469.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

The sitter in this work has traditionally been identified as “Colonel Barnard,” probably referring to Andrew Francis Barnard (ca. 1773–1855), the Irish army officer whom English writer Anthony Powell asserted was painted by Andrew Plimer in his 1928 volume of Barnard’s posthumous letters.¹ Although Barnard went on to become an illustrious officer serving in various capacities in the West Indies, the Netherlands, and Sicily as well as in the Napoleonic Wars, his youthful appearance and civilian clothing here indicate that this miniature was painted before his enlistment in 1794, when he was around twenty-one years old.² It may have been commissioned by Barnard’s family as a keepsake ahead of his military departure.

The portrait miniature tradition is well documented within the Barnard family: Andrew’s father, the Reverend Henry Barnard, was painted by Richard Crosse (1742–1810) and his aunt, Lady Anne Barnard (1750–1825), by Anne Mee (1765–1851) and Richard Cosway (1742–1821), artists who were within Plimer’s orbit.³ Later in life, Andrew Barnard sat for multiple large-scale oil portraits, which illustrate his many medals and honors (Fig. 1).⁴ Although this early miniature shares a similarly shaped nose, lips, and gray eyes with those later portraits, Plimer was notorious for generalizing his sitters’ features, so it is difficult to compare likenesses.

The Nelson-Atkins miniature aligns with the style of Plimer’s work at the apex of his career, in the 1790s, in its stylized treatment of the sitter and heavily cross-hatched brushwork.⁵ Barnard wears a brown coat with brass buttons and a velvet collar. His powdered hair is tied back with a bow visible behind his left shoulder. The portrait’s frame contains gold laurel leaves set against blue glass, and the case back repeats the same motif, which encircles a basketweave of brown hair.

Laurel, a symbol for not only military victory but also remembrance, aptly characterizes Barnard and reappeared as a powerful tribute at his death. Barnard commanded his first battalion in 1810 and was wounded twice during the Peninsular War (1807–1814). He was severely wounded again in 1813, this time shot through the lung at the siege of San Sebastian.⁶ After many years of service to the British Army, Barnard received the highest rank of general in 1851.⁷ His eminent career came to an end when he died on January 17, 1855, at the age of eighty-two.⁸ Those who served under him in the Peninsular War were so touched by his leadership that they asked permission to view his remains in advance of the funeral. Barnard’s obituary explained, “After they had left the room, it was found that the coffin was covered with laurel leaves, each man having, unobserved, brought one in to strew upon the remains of their venerated chief.”⁹

Notes

1. Powell writes, “There is a miniature of Sir Andrew by Andrew Plimer” but lists no source or illustration. See Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, Barnard Letters, 1778–1824, ed. Anthony Powell (London: Duckworth, 1928), 93n1. Powell probably saw the miniature while visiting Barnard’s descendants to transcribe his letters. According to “Coulson Family Tree,” profile for Andrew Francis Barnard (1773–17 Jan 1885), in “Public Member Trees” database, Ancestrylibrary.com, accessed December 1, 2022.

2. “1st Battalion of the 90th Ditto . . . Andrew Francis Barnard, Gent. to be Ensign,” according to “War-Office,” The London Gazette, September 2, 1794, 896. Colonel John Lewes of the 81st wrote to him on August 12, 1794: “Remit three hundred pounds/English for the Ensigncy . . . and also two hundred pounds for the Lieutenantcy [sic], and you may as well have your money ready for a third step as I trust and hope I shall be able to get you a Company in a month or two.” Quoted in Barnard, Barnard Letters, 41.

3. Richard Crosse (1742–1810) painted Barnard’s father, the Reverend Henry Barnard (ca. 1728–1793); see Richard Crosse, Reverend Dr. Henry Barnard, watercolor on ivory, 1 15/16 x 1 9/16 in. (4.9 x 4 cm), National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.19268, http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/4671/reverend-dr-henry-barnard. Barnard’s uncle was also rendered in an etching; see William Daniell, after George Dance the Younger, Thomas Barnard (1728–1806), Protestant Bishop of Limerick, 1812, soft-ground etching, sheet: 40 x 29.5 cm, plate: 27 x 20.3 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.10049, http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/149/thomas-barnard-17281806-protestant-bishop-of-limerick;jsessionid=A9DBC818E00AE4180CDABA5FD13479A2. Lady Anne married Andrew Barnard (ca. 1765–1807), who sometimes is confused with his nephew, Andrew Francis Barnard. Multiple miniatures of Lady Anne exist: see Stephen Taylor, Defiance: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Anne Barnard (London: W. W. Norton, 2016), opposite p. 182; and Anne Mee, Lady Anne Barnard, 18th century, watercolor on ivory, 2 3/4 in. (9.5 cm) high, previously in the inventory of Philip Mould.

4. Unknown, Major-General Sir Andrew Barnard, n.d., The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum, Winchester; George Jones, Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, ca. 1815, oil on panel, 5 3/4 x 4 5/8 in. (14.6 x 11.8 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 982a, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00340/Sir-Andrew-Francis-Barnard; Alfred, Count D’Orsay, Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, 1845, pencil and chalk, 11 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (29.8 x 21.6 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 4026(3), https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00342/Sir-Andrew-Francis-Barnard.

5. Vanessa Remington, “Plimer, Andrew 1763–1837,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 44:581.

6. Roger T. Stearn, “Barnard, Sir Andrew Francis (1773–1855),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 3:951.

7. Stearn, “Barnard, Sir Andrew Francis (1773–1855),” 951.

8. Stearn, “Barnard, Sir Andrew Francis (1773–1855),” 951. Barnard also received an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge and was a governor of the Royal Academy of Music. Music was a passion of his; he wrote in an early letter from Plymouth on December 15, 1794, that he was practicing the fiddle and that he deeply missed his harpsichord and hoped it remained safe at a friend’s. Barnard, Barnard Letters, 46.

9. Sylvanus Urban, “Gen. Sir Andrew F. Barnard, G.C.B.,” The Gentleman’s Magazine 43 (March 1855): 309.

Probably commissioned by the sitter, Andrew Francis Barnard (1773–1855), by 1794 [1];

Possibly gifted to his sister, Anne Elizabeth Barnard (1768–1852) [2];

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.

Notes

[1] Andrew Francis Barnard wrote, “when I have enough to pay my expences [sic] to town I shall draw for the price of the portrait which poor Anne has been so long promised.” Quoted from a letter in Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, Barnard Letters, 1778–1824, ed. Anthony Powell (London: Duckworth, 1928), 93. Powell writes, “There is a miniature of Sir Andrew by Andrew Plimer” but lists no source or illustration. See Barnard Letters, 1778–1824, 93n1. Powell probably saw the miniature while visiting Barnard’s descendants to transcribe his letters, which suggests the miniature was passed down through family descent, until at least 1928.

[2] According to his will, Andrew Francis Barnard left his belongings to his niece, Sarah Elizabeth Crauford (ca. 1809–after 1861), the daughter of his sister Anne Elizabeth and Catlin Craufurd, as well as his nephew, Henry William Barnard (1798–1857). Henry was married to his cousin and Sarah’s sister, Isabella Letitia Craufurd (1805–1886). London Church of England Parish Registers, ref. DL/T/089/023, London Metropolitan Archives. “Will of Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, Lieutenant General in Her Majesty’s Army of Bombay,” The National Archives, Kew, ref. PROB 11/2215/255. The widow of Andrew Norman Barnard, a descendant of the sitter, sold the family house (Withersdane) and estate, in 1945.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 176, as Colonel Barnard.

Probably Sir Andrew Francis Barnard, Barnard Letters, 1778–1824, ed. Anthony Powell (London: Duckworth, 1928), 93, 93n1.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 176, p. 60, (repro.), as Colonel Barnard.