Irving Barker House, Paradise Hills

The present work depicts the house in the Paradise Hills at Middletown, Rhode Island where John La Farge lived in 1866. At the time, the house belonged to La Farge's landlord Stephen P. Barker, the father of Irving Barker, who also lived there with his wife. This residence, before being moved a half-mile west to Paradise Avenue during the 1890s, was adjacent to the site where La Farge painted his famous canvas entitled Paradise Valley between 1866 and 1868, which is currently in the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois.
We are grateful to James L. Yarnall, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History, Salve Regina University, for preparing the catalogue entry for this work.