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| Artist | Attributed to Barker, Thomas (English painter and lithographer, 1769-1847) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to Stone, Henry (British painter, 1616-1653) |
| Title | Portrait of an Elderly Gentleman |
| Date earliest | possibly about 1816 |
| Date latest | 1847 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 44.5 x 35.3 cm |
| Description | This bust-length portrait of an elderly gentleman is painted in the style of the renowned Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. The sitter's features bear some resemblance to Van Dyck's portrait of the royalist army officer Jacob, the First Lord Astley (1640, private collection) which was well known through reproductions such as an engraving published in 1816. In the first catalogue of Sir William Holburne's collection (1867), published during Holburne's lifetime, this portrait was attributed to the Bath artist Thomas Barker, with whom Holburne was acquainted. Barker painted many copies and pastiches in the style of famous old masters. |
| Subject | portrait (man, gentleman) |
| Collection | Holburne Museum of Art, Bath |
| Current accession number | A16 |
| Acquisition details | Bequeathed by Miss Mary Anne Barbara Holburne 1882. |
| Provenance | Sir Thomas William Holburne, by 1867-74; by descent to Mary Anne Barbara Holburne (1802-1882), 1874. |
| Principal publications | Catalogue of the Pictures and Library, Engravings, Etchings and Miniatures Belonging to Sir Thomas William Holburne, Bart., Bath, 1867, cat. no. 153, p. 7, as by [Thomas] Barker after Van Dyck; Chaffers, W., Catalogue of the Holburne of Menstrie Art Museum Bath, London, 1887, cat. no. 1472, p. 73, as by Thomas Barker after Van Dyck; Moeckler, F., Holburne of Menstrie Art Museum, Bath, 1902, cat. no. 236, p. 8, as by Thomas Barker after Van Dyck; Catalogue, Pictures and Miniatures, I, 1927, cat. no. 131, p. 39, as by School of Van Dyck; The Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Catalogue, Pictures, I, Bath 1936, cat. no. 119, p. 41, as by School of Van Dyck; Wright, C. Old Master Paintings in Britain: An Index of Old Master Continental Paintings Executed before c. 1800 in Public Collections in the United Kingom, London, 1976, p. 57. |
| Notes | Fragment of old label on reverse, inscribed in pencil, mainly illegible: '... 3 /4 B ...'. H. A. Buttery thought the work 'bad, ruined' and rejected the attribution to Thomas Barker, 1906. |
| Rights status | © The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath |
| Author | Dr Susan Steer |
