Cork artist features in Blake exhibition

The work of famous Blackpool artist James Barry is currently hanging in a major exhibition in the National Gallery of Ireland.

The 18th century artist James Barry (1741 – 1806) features in William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, a loan exhibition from Tate which has been curated in partnership with the National Gallery of Ireland. It presents a selection of Blake’s most iconic works of art, alongside paintings and drawings by his contemporaries. It offers a rare opportunity to encounter one of the most visionary figures in art and literature. The exhibition runs until Sunday 19 July at the Gallery.

James Barry was born on 11 October 1741 in Water Lane, now Seminary Road, Blackpool. Barry was a single-minded and ambitious artist, who in his youth was supported by the writer and critic Edmund Burke.

One of James Barry’s most notable works of art is ‘The Progress of Human Culture’, an epic six-painting cycle created for the Royal Society of Arts in London. His significant influence on his contemporaries extended to William Blake, who took inspiration from Barry’s uncompromising commitment to his art and his outspoken views. Two of Barry’s works are on show in this exhibition; a drawing, ‘Study for ‘Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos’ and a dramatic print entitled ‘Satan, Sin and Death’.

Patrick O’Donovan, TD, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport said: “I wish to commend the National Gallery in staging this amazing exhibition, celebrating some of the most iconic works of William Blake.”

Speaking about the exhibition, Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, said: “It is very exciting to continue our partnership with our colleagues at Tate and present the work of William Blake alongside his contemporaries in this major exhibition. The impact that Blake and the era of Romanticism have had on Western art cannot be overstated.”