Cattle in a woodland stream

Benjamin Barker was the second son of Benjamin Barker Snr. (c.1720-1793) and younger brother of Thomas Barker (1769-1847). Benjamin West visited Bath in 1807 and commented that 'The two Barkers [are] very ingenious;... Benjamin, the younger brother, is the better landscape painter' (J. Farington, vol.VIII, 10 November 1807). Benjamin Barker II concentrated on landscape painting, and made sketching tours for the material for his pictures in North Wales, Yorkshire, Kent, Dorset and Devon between 1800 and 1815. He exhibited his first work at the British Institution in 1806, and exhibited there regularly until 1838, as well as at the Royal Academy.

A similar group of oil sketches by Benjamin Barker of Bath feature in the catalogue for the exhibition Inside Out: Historic Watercolour Drawings, Oil sketches and Paintings of Interiors and Exteriors 1770-1870, London, 2000, no. 22.