54
70
Charles Burton Barber (1845-1894)
FRIEND OR FOE?
oil on canvas
signed lower left; with faint inscription of artist’s name and indistinct title on stretcher on
reverse; with Coolings Galleries, London label on reverse
18 by 24in. (45.72 by 60.96cm)
Provenance:
Cooling Galleries, London;
Private collection
Literature
:
Furniss, H., The Works of Charles Burton Barber, Cassell & Co. Ltd., London, Paris and Melbourne,
1896, (illustrated p.53)
Friend or Foe?
is documented in the 1896 text by Harry Furniss, the artist’s neighbour and biographer who
remembers the painter as “…the gentlest and truest of friends, and the sweetest-natured man that ever
held a brush”. It forms part of a much-admired body of work comprising child subject genre pieces, animal
and sporting pictures.
The present work shows the recurrence of three characters familiar in his paintings of the 1880s, the little
blond model, a Jack Russell and kitten. However, the scene before us is set outdoors focusing solely on
nature and the wonder it has inspired in three companions.The little girl is caught away from parental eyes
and those constraints imposed on a child from an affluent Victorian home. Capturing the attention of the
three is a frog and a wasp facing-off in the foreground of the composition.Their audience’s curiosity can be
seen in the intense gazes, the girl’s outstretched arms and spread fingers, the tension in the animals’ paws
and their pricked ears, each depicted with exquisite precision, attention to detail and reverence to the
subject.
Burton Barber died at the premature age of 49. He was prize-winner with the Royal Academy where he
showed 13 works throughout his career. He also showed at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Fine Art
Society, Grosvenor,Walker and Arthur Tooth & Sons Galleries among others. Recognition came through
Royal patronage in 1873 with Queen Victoria commissioning him as court painter upon the death of Sir
Edwin Landseer, whom Burton Barber much admired. Among the paintings executed include a portrait of
the Queen on horseback with John Brown holding the reins.The artist’s last work was for the Queen, which
he painted in the summer of 1894; it depicts the Queen in her pony carriage with the Prince and Princess
Henry of Battenberg in the foreground at Osborne.
The appeal of Burton Barber’s paintings was not lost on the advertising world. A. & F. Pears soap acquired a
number of works which they later employed to sell their product. Other examples were engraved or
reproduced as chromolithographs.
!
25,000-
!
35,000 (£21,400-£29,900 approx.)
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
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I...,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147 149,150,151,152,153