William Gerard Barry [1864-1941]
Irish Historic Realist portrait and landscape painter
Town along the sea [likely York Harbor, Newfoundland], ca.1900
Oil on canvas
14 x 24 inches [unframed] | 20 x 30 inches [framed]
Signed at lower left: ‘Garry Barry’.

TITLES:
2023 Town along the sea [likely York Harbor, Newfoundland]
2022 Seascape with mountains in the distance

CONDITION:
Original untouched condition.

DESCRIPTION:
Irish painter William Gerard Barry [1864-1941] was known for his travel through Ireland, Canada, United States and France.  This painting is depicting a scene from Newfoundland’s York Harbor from around 1900.  The cold light and time of day matches the Newfoundland weather and feel.  We matched similar images from the artist to this Harbor and compared it to pictures on the Island.

PROVENANCE:
2023 ( David Smernoff, New Haven, CT & New York, NY ) ;
2023 ( [withheld], MA ) ;
2022 ( [withheld], MA ) ;
after ca.1888 Private collection of [unknown] ;
ca.1888 William Gerard Barry [1864-1941], the artist .

EXHIBITION:
– 2023 [withheld] ;
– 2022 [withheld] ;

REFERENCES:
– [withheld], 2023
– [withheld], 2022

BIOGRAPHY:
William Gerard Barry [1864-1941] was an Irish painter who worked in a plein air style reminiscent of his contemporaries Frank O’Meara, John Lavery, and Roderic O’Conor. Born in Ballyadam, Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Barry was the second of seven children of a local magistrate. Showing early promise as an artist, he studied at the Cork School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Jones Thaddeus (1859-1929). Encouraged by Thaddeus to further his training, the 22-year-old Barry enrolled for one year at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1886, living the typical bohemian lifestyle in the Montmartre artistic quarter.

The following year in 1887, Barry relocated to the artist colony in Etaples, France, where his fellow Irish painter Frank O’Meara was also working. It was here that Barry painted his prize-winning work Time Flies (1863, Crawford Gallery), which earned him the £30 Taylor Scholarship from the Royal Dublin Society.

In 1888, after a serious falling-out with his father, presumably over money, Barry left Cork and worked his passage to Canada. This marked the beginning of a nomadic period, during which he traveled and worked throughout North America and the South Pacific islands. To support himself, he took on jobs as a ranch-hand, sign painter, and portrait artist. His subjects reportedly included U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, whose portrait was displayed in the White House.

Eventually settling in the south of France, Barry rented a studio on the Riviera and focused primarily on portraiture in oils and charcoal. He spent his final years in the village of St. Jean-de-Luz in the French Pyrenees until his accidental death at age 77. Due to his travels and unsettled lifestyle, Barry’s works are largely unknown and extremely rare. However, his few surviving paintings demonstrate serious talent comparable to his renowned Irish contemporaries. In addition to portraiture, his seascapes and landscapes attest to his plein air affinity.