Wright Barker

(British, 1864-1941)

British artist Wright Barker was born in 1864. Best known as a genre painter of hunting scenes and animals, he enjoyed painting scenes from the local Rufford Hunt, packs of hunting hounds and other dogs, regal horses, rural landscapes and Highland cattle. Using a bold stroke and rich color, Barker worked on many large-scale canvases, always signing his work with a bold signature.

Barker became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1896, exhibiting 28 paintings over the course of his career. He exhibited 22 paintings at the Royal Academy between 1891 and 1938, including In Forest’s Depths Unseen (1891), My Children and their Pets (1904), and The Day Before the Fair. Barker also exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Royal Scottish Academy, Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery, Royal Academy, Walker Gallery and Manchester City Art Gallery, among others. In addition to his hunting and animal paintings, Barker painted the occasional portrait, such as Harrison Benn, Esq., and Daughters (1901), and the pre-Raphaelite-styled Circe (1889).

Barker resided in his birth city of Bradford until 1885, when he moved to Edwinstowe near Mansfield, Nottingham. He and his wife, Ellen Mary, had two daughters. After moving to Hampstead in 1901, he finally settled in Harrogate. In his later years, Barker had also became an art dealer but always referred to himself as an “animal painter.” In 2012, his painting titled A Shepherd With His Flock in A Winter Landscape sold at Christie’s for GBP 25,000.