Oil Painting, 'A Boy Extracting a Thorn from his Foot', Thomas Barker of Bath, 1810

An oil painting of a boy, raggedly dressed, seated on a rock extracting a thorn from the sole of his foot.

Given by Charles T. Maud

Given by Charles T. Maud, 1871
Re : Charles T. Maud : Taken from Somersetshire parishes; a handbook of historical reference to all places in the county. 'Bathampton Charles Theobald Maud of the Manor House, farmer, horse-breeder, and collector of pictures. Left Harrow 1808-9. Bal. Col. Oxf. BA 1818.' Maud was also the cousin of W J Broderip, the eminent naturalist, who owned William Holman Hunt's 'The Hireling Shepherd' (City of Manchester Art Galleries). Maud originally commissioned a replica of the sheep in the background of this work, but Hunt persuaded him to commission a new piece, 'Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep)' (Tate Britain).

Historical significance: Presumably, sold English and Son, J H S Piggott collection, 11 October 1849, (126, as 'Boy with a Thorn in his Foot', size given as 45 x 52 ins), bt. Capt. Ford, £95.

The pose of the boy is adapted from the famous classical large-scale bronze statue called the "Spinario", of a boy removing a thorn from the sole of his foot. This bronze is now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. It was very influential on Italian Renaissance artists, and was also much copied in various media; there is, for example, a mid-eighteenth-century Staffordshire earthenware figure in the V&A collections. Barker had travelled to Italy, arriving in Rome in 1790, and returning to England by the end of 1793. His trip to study the art works of Italy was financed by the Bath businessman Charles Spackman (1749-1822), who wished to advance the career of the young artist (Barker's 'Self-portrait with his Preceptor Charles Spackman' is in the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath).
The prime inspiration for this painting by Barker however, in terms of the treatment and sentiment of the subject, is the genre paintings of the Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682), such as the "Three Peasant Boys" of the late 1660s (now in Dulwich Picture Gallery, London). Barker was undoubtedly aware of the influence of Murillo on earlier British artists such as Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in their paintings of rustic or indigent children. Barker was particularly aware of the paintings of Gainsborough, who had also worked in Bath, and his Self Portrait referred to above shows him painting a landscape in the style of Gainsborough.

This is work was presumably the one exhibited at the British Institution in 1811, (cat. no. 17, "Boy picking a thorn out of his foot"), the size given in the catalogue as 73 by 66 inches including the frame (the measurements of the present frame are 69 1/2 by 61 3/4 inches). It was perhaps also the one exhibited at the British Institution in 1822, as "A boy extracting a thorn from his foot", size 74 by 66 inches. The 'British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts under the Patronage of His Majesty' was founded 1805, and was a private 19th-century club in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists. Unlike the Royal Academy its membership was made up of connoisseurs rather than practicing artists. A number of paintings by Barker of Bath were exhibited at the B.I. during his lifetime.

Painted in 1810, Barker showed this work at the British Institution in the following year. The boy is shown sat down on a log to take a thorn out of his foot.

The theme of a boy extracting a thorn from his foot is an old one in art that would have been recognised by a nineteenth century audience as referring to renaissance and antique examples. The pastel colours combine to create soft tone that conveys the sentiment of the subject. Such paintings of children were popular in the early to mid nineteenth century.

222-1871