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Creator:
James Barry, 1741–1806
Title:
The Education of Achilles [1772, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
Date:
ca. 1772
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
40 1/2 x 50 3/4 inches (102.9 x 128.9 cm), Frame: 49 x 59 x 4 inches (124.5 x 149.9 x 10.2 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1978.6
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1978.6FR
Subject Terms:
art | centaurs | child | children | costume | death | diagram | gesture | Greek | herm | horse (animal) | infant | inscription | landscape | lyre | mathematics | men | mother | music | mythology | religious and mythological subject | shadow | shield | spear | statue | teaching | war | woman
Associated People:
Achilles
Chiron
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:471
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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After several years studying in Rome, the Irishman James Barry established himself in London in 1770. He exhibited The Education of Achilles at the Royal Academy in 1772, becoming a Royal Academician the following year. The painting, a statement of Barry’s classical ideals, shows the wise and learned centaur Chiron instructing the future hero Achilles in art (represented by the lyre), mathematics (the Euclidean diagram traced on the ground), and war (the spear and shield). A Greek inscription on the plinth supporting a mysterious veiled head translates as “all things: one and in one.” A startlingly original and inventive artist, Barry was also a political radical and contentious character, alienating both patrons and fellow artists and ending life isolated and impoverished.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Ireland - Art on a World Stage 1690-1840 (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2015-03-17 - 2015-06-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

James Barry (1741-1806) The Great Historical Painter (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, 2005-10-24 - 2006-03-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Noble Horse (II) (The Bunkamaura Museum of Art, 2000-09-02 - 2000-10-22) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Noble Simplicity and Silent Greatness - Neoclassical Art from 1700 - 1900 (Yale University Art Gallery, 1991-04-26 - 1991-09-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

James Barry - Tate (Tate Britain, 1983-02-09 - 1983-03-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

"Fresnoy", To James B___y, Morning Chronicle, 3 May 1773, p. 2, 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection [ORBIS]

Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977-1986 : Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1986, p. 10, no. 1, fig. 1, N590.2 .A7 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Barrell, Birth of Pandora and the division of knowledge, , The Macmillan Company, Basingstoke, UK, 1992, pp. 202-203, no. 41, DA485 .B26 1992 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Susan Bennett, Cultivating the human faculties : James Barry (1741-1806) and the Society of Arts, , Lehigh University Press, Bethlehem, Pa., 2008, p. 108, fig. 30, NJ18 .B2425 C85 2008 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

David Bindman, Barry at the Tate, Burlington Magazine, vol. 125, April 1983, p. 241, N1 .B87 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Catalogues of Pictures Exhibited at the Rooms of the Royal Academy, Library of the Fine Arts, vol. 2, December 1831, p. 405, no. 14, British Periodicals [ORBIS]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 20-21, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Fintan Cullen, Visual Politics : the Representation of Ireland 1750-1930, , Cork University Press, Cork [Ireland], 1997, pp. 27-29, 37. 40, no. 13, N6782 .C85 1997 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

L. Perry Curtis, Jr., Review : Visual Politics: The Representation of Ireland 1750-1930 by Fintan Cullan, , Victorian Studies, vol. 43, Autumn 2000, p. 162, DA550 .V53 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Tom Dunne, James Barry, 1741-1806 : 'the great historical painter', , Crawford Art Gallery, Gandon Editions, Kinsale, Ireland, 2005, pp. 11, 33, 38-39, 88-89, 178, 201, no. P11, NJ18 .B2425 J35 2005 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Tom Dunne, James Barry, 1741-1806 : history painter, , Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, UK and Burlington, VT, 2010, pp. 4, 78, NJ18.B2425 J34 2010 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Tom Dunne, Review : Cultural Role of the Visual, Irish Review (Cork), Autumn-Winter 1997, pp. 136-137, JSTOR [ORBIS]

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 1, ND466 .G67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

William Hauptman, Michel-Vincent Brandoin and Kauffman's 'Acontio', Notes in the History of Art, vol. 15, Spring 1996, pp. 14-19, 15, JSTOR [ORBIS]

William Laffan, Ireland : crossroads of art and design, 1690-1840, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2015, pp. 141, 142, 225, no. 11, fig. 4 (p. 142), N6787 .I74 2015 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Liam Lehihan, The writings of James Barry and the genre of history painting, 1775-1809, Ashgate Publishing, Burlington, VT, 2014, pp. 7-9, fig. no. I.1, NJ18 .B2425 L46 2014 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Huon Mallalieu, Dutch Mannerist Painting is Sold for £32,000, The Times (London), London, 15 March 1977, p. 18, The Times Digital Archive [ORBIS]

Peter Murray, Review : Visual Politics: The Representation of Ireland 1750-1930 by Fintan Cullen, , Irish Arts Review Yearbook, vol. 15, 1999, pp. 174-175, JSTOR [ORBIS]

Noble Simplicity and Silent Greatness : Neoclassical Art, 1700-1900, , Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1991, p. 6, no. 6, N6425 .N4 N63 1991 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Anna Ottani Cavina, Appunti : James Barry : un libro e una mostra, , Paragone: Rivista mensile di arte figurative e letteratura fondata d Roberto Longhi, vol. 34, March 1983, p. 70, fig. 48, N4 .P37 (HAAS) [ORBIS]

William L. Pressly, James Barry : The Artist as Hero, , Tate Publishing, London, 1983, pp. 55-56, no. 4, NJ18 .B2425 P72 (YCBA) [YCBA]

William L. Pressly, James Barry's murals at the Royal Society of Arts : envisioning a new public art, Cork University Press, Cork, Ireland, 2014, pp. 191, 197-205, 228, 307, fig. 30, NJ18 .B2425 P725 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

William L. Pressly, Life and Art of James Barry, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1981, pp. 35-36, 40, 48, 54, 230, no. 10, pl. II, NJ18 .B2425 P73 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Report on the Papers of Ozias Humphry, R.A. (1743-1810) in the Custody of the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1V ODS, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004, p. 29, cat. HU/7/1, NJ18 .H913 G74 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Duncan Robinson, Acquisitions : The First Decade 1977 - 1986, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, October 1986, p. 10, no. 1, fig. 1, N1 .B87 128:3 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition Catalogue. 1772. 4th, Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 4, London, 1772, p. 4, no. 14, N5054 .A53 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Walter G. Strickland, A dictionary of Irish artists, Maunsel & Company, Ltd., Dublin and London, UK, 1913, Vol. 1, p. 43, N6782 .S76 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The Noble Horse : From Pegasus to Thoroughbred, , Television Tokyo Channel 12, Ltd., 2000, pp. 30, 113, English Catalogue p. 3, no. 8, pl. 8, N7668 .H6 N6 2000 (YCBA) [YCBA]

The works of James Barry, Esq. Historical painter... Containing his correspondence from France and Italy with Mr. Burke - His lectures on painting delivered at the Royal Academy - Observations on differnt works of art in Italy and France - Critical remarks on the principal paintings of the Orleans Galle, , John M'Creery, London, 1809, (vol 1) pp. 111, 241, N7445.2 .B27 (YCBA) + [YCBA]

To the Printer of the Middlesex Journal, Middlesex Journal, London, 23-25 April 1772, p. 4, 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection [ORBIS]

John Ward, The Education of Achilles, Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 16, November 1909, pp. 108-109, N1 .B87 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Warner, Stubbs and the Horse, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 69-70, fig. 67, NJ18 .St915 W37 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in Oils and Crayons, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1981, p. 42, ND466 +.W38 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Iris Wien, Joshua Reynolds : Mythos und Metapher, Wilhelm Fink, Munchen, 2009, p. 387, fig. 120, NJ18.R36 W54 2009 [ORBIS]

Mick Wilson, Review : Visual Politics: the Representation of Ireland 1750-1930 by Fintan Cullen, , Circa, vol. 81, Autumn 1997, pp. 61-62, JSTOR [ORBIS]


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