 Gerald M. Barry is primarily known as William Gerard Barry
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Ad Code: 4
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from Auction House Records.
Portrait of J.H. Catherwood, Sr, 1905
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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Biography from Fine Art California Gallery:
| William Gerard Barry (1864-1941)
The early life of Cork painter William Gerard Barry was relatively
normal. Born in Ballyadam, Carrigtwohill, County Cork, he was the
second of seven children of a local magistrate. Demonstrating a
natural talent for drawing, he studied at the Cork School of art under
the renowned Henry Jones Thaddeus (1859-1929), who encouraged Barry to
further his studies in Paris. Thus at 22, like other Irish artists such
as Sarah Purser (1848-1943), Richard Moynan (1856-1906), John Lavery
(1856-1941), Dermod O'Brien (1865-1945) and Paul Henry (1876-1958),
Barry enrolled for one year at the Académie Julian, living a typical
bohemian life in the artistic quarter of Montmartre.
The following year (1887), he moved to the artist colony at Etaples in
Calais region - where his fellow Irish painter Frank O'Meara (1853-88)
was also painting. It was in Etaples that he painted Time Flies
(Crawford Gallery), which he successfully submitted to the Royal Dublin
Society, winning the £30 Taylor Scholarship for his trouble.
In 1888 Barry returned to Ireland, but promptly had a serious fall-out
with his father - presumably over money - causing him to leave Cork and
work his passage to Canada. This marked the beginning of his nomadic
period, during which he worked his way through Canada to the United
States, and thereafter to many countries including the South Sea
islands of the Pacific.
In North America he survived by working as a ranch-hand and sign
painter, and numerous portrait commissions including, reputedly, one of
President Wilson which was hung in the White House. Eventually, he
settled in France, in a rented studio on the Riviera, occupying himself
mostly with portraiture in oils and also charcoal. In his last years,
he retired to St. Jean-de-Luz, a village in the French Pyrenees, where
he suffered a fatal accident at the age of 77. Due to Barry's foreign
wanderings and lifestyle, his works are largely unknown and thus
extremely rare. However, his few surviving paintings indicate serious
talent, in a plein air style at times comparable with O'Meara and
Lavery. His sea views are also reminiscent of those by Augustus Burke
(1838-91) and Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940).
Submited by: Armand Chavez/fineartcalifornia.com
Source:
Encyclopedia of Irish & World Art: 2010
Web Link: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/biographies-of-irish-artists/william-gerard-barry.htm |
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