Oil painting, 'Sheep Washing', Thomas Barker of Bath, 1807

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Re : Charles T. Maud : Taken from Somersetshire parishes; a handbook of historical reference to all places in the county, 'Bathampton Charles Theobald Maud of the Manor House, farmer, horse-breeder, and collector of pictures.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 'The Hireling Shepherd', but Hunt persuaded him to commission a new piece, 'Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep)' (Tate Britain).

Historical significance: The British Institution catalogue for 1808 notes a work by Thomas Barker with the title ‘Sheep-washing’ which is probably the same painting as museum number 224-1871. The measurements given are for the frame [British Institution, Catalogue of the works of British artists place in the gallery… for exhibition and sale, 1808, cat. no. 399, ‘Sheep-washing, T. Barker. [Height] 3ft 6 in x [width] 4ft 6 in’], i.e. 42 by 54 inches. The 'British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts under the Patronage of His Majesty' was founded 1805. It was a private 19th-century club in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists, and unlike the Royal Academy its membership was made up of connoisseurs rather than practicing artists. Many paintings by Thomas Barker of Bath were exhibited at the BI during the artist's lifetime. This work is signed and dated 1807, and so was only completed the year prior to its exhibition. It is not recorded however when the donor, C T Maud, acquired the work. Although the ostensible subject matter is the process of sheep washing, the painting is unlike Barker's genre pictures such as 'Landsdown Fair' (223-1871), with their focus human pastimes and activities . Despite the activity at the centre of the work, this is in effect a landscape painting.

A group of five figures are shown standing in the river in the foreground of this painting washing a flock of sheep that is being led from the left into the water. The curving form of the river leads the viewer’s eye into the painting and the distant mountains. The landscape is of Thomas Barker’s native Wales that he continued to visit throughout his life.

Landscapes with figures in them had become popular through the work of seventeenth century artists including Nicolas Poussin and Meindert Hobbema. Thomas Barker studied by copying these earlier masters and became famous for being able to imitate their different styles. The soft edges of the Welsh landscape and the tones of brown and green used in Sheep Washing are close in style to the early British landscape painter Richard Wilson who remained influential throughout the nineteenth century.

224-1871