Barry, James Hugh Smith
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- Barry, James Hugh Smith
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(1746 - 1801), 2nd surv. s. of Hon. John Smith Barry of Belmont Hall, Ches., and Fota Is., Cork; BNC Oxf. 1767; suc. fa. 1784.
1771 - 6 Rome, Naples (May - Oct. 1772), Sicily, (19 Oct. - 26 Dec), Naples (27 Dec. 1772 - spring 1773), Capua (6 Mar.), Rome (spring), Naples ( - 1 Jun. 1773) [Malta, Constantinople, Egypt] Rome (Mar. - Jun. 1775), Florence (1 Jul. - ) [England by summer 1776]
1779 Florence (May 1779), Rome (May), Naples (May - Sep.), Rome (1780?)
An enthusiastic collector of pictures and antiquities and a somewhat unpredictable character, Barry set out for Italy late in 1771. He was to have gone with his friend the antiquary Charles Townley who was, however, delayed through illness.1 In Rome Barry met Thomas Jenkins who at once set about selling him pictures and antiquities (Barry eventually called him 'Don Tomasso'); he also sat for his portrait (unattributed; Sotheby's, 16 Nov. 1988), and his brawling servants were fined and imprisoned. In May 1772 Townley caught up with him in Naples. They visited Herculaneum and Pompeii, but Barry stayed in Naples when Townley set out for Puglia and Calabria. In September Barry caused 'great offense by not yielding his Rooms to the Prince [of Francavilla].'2 In October Barry and Townley visited Sicily, where they spent two months and bought large quantities of Greek and Sicilian medals. They returned to Naples on 27 December and Townley left for Rome at the end of January 1773. Barry wrote to him from Naples describing his hectic social life and his successes with the ladies. On 6 March he was passing through Capua on his return to Rome,3 where he bought from Jenkins the equestrian Paris, excavated, and heavily restored, by Gavin Hamilton. On 1 June 1773, with Lord Winchilsea, Thomas Dashwood, Dr Alexander Drummond and James Clark, Barry sailed from Naples for Greece, Constantinople, and Egypt.
When he returned to Italy in March 1775 (Townley had then gone), Barry bought paintings on a lavish scale but with little discernment; they included a Tintoretto Holy Family for £;1,000 and a Bassano Last Supper for £;750. Father Thorpe wrote that Barry had 'again spent £;12000 on virtu notwithstanding his other purchases made for eight thousand were judged to be not worth much more than the carriage to England' and Patrick Home described him as 'Smith-Barry - a great Virtu Man. bought pictures from & cheated by Jenkins'.4 His purchases of antiquities included five statues from the Villa Mattei, the 'Jenkins Vase' bought for £;500 (now NMW) and the Antinous found at Ostia in 1775, bought from Gavin Hamilton for £;1000 (Sotheby's, 9 Dec. 1974). Since bills drawn on his father's bank were now refused on paternal instruction, he was forced to borrow £;3,000 from Jenkins who had already financed most of Barry's purchases in this final year. Barry arrived in Florence on 1 July 1775,5 and had returned to England by the summer of 1776, via Dresden and Paris.
Barry was back in Italy in 1779. He was in Florence in May when he was seen at Horace Mann's,6 and later that month he passed through Rome on his way to Naples. On 13 September at Posillipo he met Lord Herbert (later 11th Earl of Pembroke), who complained that Barry had inflated the prices of rooms in Vietri.7 Gavin Hamilton told Townley that during this visit Barry became a 'feeble lover' and had avoided Jenkins with whom his relations were understandably strained; some of the pictures he had previously purchased from Jenkins were returned, partially to help settle his debt, but partly in protest at alleged exploitation. Hamilton reported that Barry made few purchases, except in medals, but he sat to Angelica Kauffman in Rome for a portrait dated 1780 (priv. coll.) and Jacob More completed two pictures for him in 1787.8
In 1781 Barry bought from Hamilton a seated Zeus from the Villa d'Este for £;600 (instead of the rumoured £;1,000; it had been exported from Rome without a licence).9 This was the last antiquity he acquired (it is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu). Barry came into considerable wealth in 1784, and his later years were spent in relative seclusion on the Isle of Fota.(10) At Marbury Hall, which was bequeathed to him by an uncle in 1787, there were in 1814 325 pictures (including views of Naples by Fabris, and several copies by 'Clarke', probably James Clark, the antiquary) and over 60 antiquities (including 21 statues and 19 busts); of these, the last sales took place in 1972 (Sotheby's, 12 Jul.; pictures), and 1987 (Christies, 10 Jul.; antiquities).
1. See G. Vaughan, Apollo, 126[1987], 4 - 11 (based on the Townley MSS). 2. Francis jnl.MSS. 3. ASN cra 1259. 4. Thorpe letters MSS (3 Jun. 1775). Home list MSS. 5. Gazz. Tosc.. 6. Swinburne, Courts, 1:249. 7. Pembroke Papers, 1:242, 247. 8. More 1993, 184, 185. 9. Add.36493, f.128 (Irvine, 10 Feb. 1781). 10. J. Cornforth, CL, 18 Sep. 1986, 866.