Eisteddfod opens at Llangollen

Joseph Barber (1757-1811) was a landscape painter and art teacher from Newcastle, though he relocated to Birmingham in the 1770s. There, he earned renown as the town’s first drawing master, teaching art both at the Free Grammar School and at his own academy on Great Charles Street. Among his pupils were David Cox and Samuel Lines, as well as his sons Charles Vincent Barber (1784-1854) and Joseph Vincent Barber (1788-1838), who later helped to establish the Birmingham School of Art.

Barber’s watercolours usually consist of small, picturesque and rustic landscapes, painted in a traditional topographical style of tinted washes and ink outlines. Eisteddfod opens at Llangollen was most likely made during his sketching trip to Wales during the 1790s, during which time he also produced several more ambitious watercolours. One of these, another view of Llangollen, is now in the collection of the British Museum and can be seen here. Barber was among the first Birmingham artists to depict Wales in art.

Mallalieu, H.L. (1986), The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920: Volume I – The Text, 2nd edition, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club.