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Lot Essay
Charles Burton Barber specialized in scenes of children with animals. From 1866 to 1893 he exhibited thirty-two works at the Royal Academy where he was a member, winning various awards for his submissions. During this period Queen Victoria and Prince Albert commissioned the artist to paint pictures of their grandchildren with their favorite pets. Indeed it was for the Queen that Burton Barber painted his last picture, an image of her seated in a pony carriage surrounded by members of the Royal family, their dogs, and servants on the lawn at Osborne. (Illustrated, H. Furniss, The Works of Burton Barber, 1896, p.11, pl.1).
Although an avid painter of dogs and children in the studio, Charles Burton Barber was a nature lover at heart, and his paintings of red deer in the Highlands are similar to works by his predecessor Sir Edwin Landseer. Having grown up in the Highlands, Burton Barber was passionate about painting scenes of wildlife but found that his pictures of children and dogs attracted the attention of dealers and the art market more readily, forcing the artist to focus on this subject matter instead. Many of Burton Barber's images were known by his contemporaries through chromo lithographic reproductions. The appeal of Burton Barber's paintings is universal and this commercial appeal made them ideal for advertising soap, children's books, and greeting cards.
The present picture painted in 1883 depicts a small child and her Jack Russell Terrier named Jack. Time to Wake up incorporates Charles Burton Barber's characteristic attention to detail revealed in the children's book about sheep and the strand of beads in the child's lap. Although Burton Barber does not humanize his animals in any of his paintings, the Jack Russell in this picture appears to be smiling. Unlike Burton Barber's colleagues whose anthropomorphic paintings of animals, especially Landseer, gave a human aspect to all of his subjects, Burton Barber kept the expression natural, adapting the animal to the part, and yet remaining an animal. The young girl in the painting is the same girl portrayed in Suspense which depicts a similar setting executed by the artist eleven years later and sold in these salerooms last year (fig 1). Burton Barber was highly regarded by his colleagues and followers as evidenced by Harry Furniss (H. Furniss, The Works of Burton Barber , 1896) who wrote, "He was a delightful companion, the gentlest and truest of friends, and the sweetest-natured man that ever held a brush." (H. Furniss, The Magazine of Art, Charles Burton Barber, p. 18).
fig. 1 - Christie's, New York, 22 May 1997, lot 169
Although an avid painter of dogs and children in the studio, Charles Burton Barber was a nature lover at heart, and his paintings of red deer in the Highlands are similar to works by his predecessor Sir Edwin Landseer. Having grown up in the Highlands, Burton Barber was passionate about painting scenes of wildlife but found that his pictures of children and dogs attracted the attention of dealers and the art market more readily, forcing the artist to focus on this subject matter instead. Many of Burton Barber's images were known by his contemporaries through chromo lithographic reproductions. The appeal of Burton Barber's paintings is universal and this commercial appeal made them ideal for advertising soap, children's books, and greeting cards.
The present picture painted in 1883 depicts a small child and her Jack Russell Terrier named Jack. Time to Wake up incorporates Charles Burton Barber's characteristic attention to detail revealed in the children's book about sheep and the strand of beads in the child's lap. Although Burton Barber does not humanize his animals in any of his paintings, the Jack Russell in this picture appears to be smiling. Unlike Burton Barber's colleagues whose anthropomorphic paintings of animals, especially Landseer, gave a human aspect to all of his subjects, Burton Barber kept the expression natural, adapting the animal to the part, and yet remaining an animal. The young girl in the painting is the same girl portrayed in Suspense which depicts a similar setting executed by the artist eleven years later and sold in these salerooms last year (fig 1). Burton Barber was highly regarded by his colleagues and followers as evidenced by Harry Furniss (H. Furniss, The Works of Burton Barber , 1896) who wrote, "He was a delightful companion, the gentlest and truest of friends, and the sweetest-natured man that ever held a brush." (H. Furniss, The Magazine of Art, Charles Burton Barber, p. 18).
fig. 1 - Christie's, New York, 22 May 1997, lot 169