Joseph Barber (1757 – 16 July 1811) was an English

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

art teacher Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practic ...

, and an early member of the Birmingham School of landscape painters. Born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, Barber moved to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in the 1770s, where he worked painting

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

and

japanned Japanning is a type of Surface finishing, finish that originated as a European imitation of East Asian lacquerware#East Asia, lacquerwork. It was first used on furniture, but was later much used on small items in metal. The word originated in th ...

goods. In 1798, Barber was appointed to teach drawing at the Free Grammar School on New Street holding classes in his studio on the corner of Edmund Street and Newhall Street. By the mid-1780s he was well established as the town's first drawing master, with an academy training artists on Great Charles Street. His pupils there included David Cox, William Radclyffe and

Samuel Lines Samuel Lines (1778 – 22 November 1863) was an English designer, painter and art education, art teacher, and an early member of the Birmingham School (landscape artists), Birmingham School of landscape painters. A significant figure in the de ...

, who was to form his own academy in

Newhall Street Newhall Street is a street located in Birmingham, England. Newhall Street stretches from Colmore Row in the city centre by St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, St Phillip's Cathedral in a north-westerly direction towards the Jewellery Quarter. ...

in 1807. Barber had five children. His two sons Vincent Barber and Charles Barber both trained as painters in his academy, with Vincent taking over its running after his father's death in 1811. His daughters Maria, Eliza and Ann Matilda also exhibited paintings and taught private students. Ann Matilda was the mother of

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

Bishop of Durham The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...

Joseph Barber Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an England, English theology, theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an ...

. Charles and Vincent Barber, with the elder Barber's former pupil

, set up a separate academy of

life drawing A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and Human positions, postures, using any of the drawing Drawing#Media, media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representatio ...

in 1809, that would eventually evolve into the

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square, Birmingham, St Pa ...

and

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

. Joseph Barber's own work consists largely of

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s and

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...

s of rustic landscape scenes - including pictures of

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

, which he was the first of many Birmingham artists to paint. His works feature in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

wrote of him, 'He was a very talented artist of the old school. He drew the figure and painted landscape well. Most of his time was employed in teaching drawing, chiefly in Indian ink and tinted with colours - such was at that time the manner of making watercolour drawings'.

References

External links

Pen and Ink Drawing - Thatched Barn, Handsworth
(Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery)
Dudley Castle Mill Basin
(

The Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Joseph 1757 births 1811 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters English watercolourists English landscape artists Artists from Newcastle upon Tyne Painters from Birmingham, West Midlands Members and Associates of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists