Joseph Barney
In 1798, Stebbing Shaw, mentioning The Deposition from the Cross in his History of Staffordshire, called Barney a "native genius" of Wolverhampton.
[2] In the collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery, there is a pen and ink drawing, A Blind Musician, which gives some additional idea of quality and versatility of Barney's works.
Barney came to London from Wolverhampton before or in 1774, as in that year he received from the Royal Society of Arts "a Silver Palette for a drawing of flowers".
But the statement in the Dictionary of National Biography - "studied under the Italian decorative painter Antonio Zucchi (1726–1795) and Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807), exhibiting from their London address in 1777" [4] must be challenged.
Barney must have known Angelica as a co-founder of the Academy of Art, an extremely popular and successful artist, and his mentor's future wife.
No later than in November 1779 he started to collaborate with Matthew Boulton (1728–1809) and his Soho manufactory, assisting in the production of so-called mechanical paintings.
He worked on paintings after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Joseph Wright of Derby, Antonio Zucchi and Angelica Kauffman.
His Scene in the ‘Tempest, exhibited in 1788, might indicate his ambition to join the Boydell's Shakespeare Project in which his friends Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman participated.
They also reveal his close collaboration with Francis Wheatley (1747–1801), Charles Turner (engraver) (1774–1857), William Hamilton (painter) (1751–1801), Thomas Gaugain (1756–1812).
In 1796, a reviewer of the 1796 exhibition at the Royal Academy commented on Barney's Inside of a Stable: "We have seen a great many better things of this sort than this is - it wants effect and truth of colouring.
His name is associated today with short-lived enterprise of mechanical paintings, a small number of "fruit and flowers" pieces, and cheap sentimental colour prints, if not practically forgotten.
Barney's early altar pieces which survive in Wolverhampton, give a good idea about his strong artistic potential which was recognised and respected by his contemporaries.
The altar pieces at St John's Church and at the Catholic Chapel, in Wolverhampton, of which he was native, formed lasting monuments of his skill as an artist."
Became a soldier and military engineer who also served in the Peninsular War and in the West Indies, and later took a significant place in the history of Australia.
