Landscape with Birds and Fishes
Francis Barlow (Lincolnshire c.1626 - London 1704)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1667 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil, canvas, gilt frame
Measurements
2540 x 3454 mm (100 x 136 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Clandon Park, Surrey
NT 1441518
Summary
[Destroyed in the fire of 2015] Oil painting on canvas, Landscape with Birds and Fishes, by Francis Barlow (Lincolnshire c.1626 - London 1704), signed and dated 1667. A landscape with parkland to the left and an expanse of water to the right, with fish on the ground and in a basket, and birds on the ground, in the air, and on branches. A heron stands at the right, with its feet in the stream running down from a dam. In front of the heron is a wooden pole, on which the artist has signed and dated the painting. Another heron takes off from the ground to the left, and is shown in mid-flight. Between the two herons are many fish. A freshwater eel hangs out over the edge of a basket full of carp, while another eel lies on the ground to the left. Further carp can also be seen on the ground. In the foreground are two large, silvery pike, and to the left of them are three small minnows. Under the feet of the heron at the left are two barbel, one of which is seen only in part. Below them are two perch, with their red-tinged fins and striped markings. Another perch can be seen near the basket of carp. Two magpies stand on the ground near the fish, one of them proceeding to eat part of a roach in front of them. Another roach is visible to the left, just underneath the right wing of the heron. Between the heron and the magpies is a tench. Another tench lies near it, between a barbel and a perch, by the feet of the flying heron. A kingfisher perches on one of the poles or branches used to dam the stretch of water. To the left, a jay is in mid-flight and another is perched in a tree in the middle of the composition. Two jackdaws are in flight at the top left, and another three perch among the branches of a dying tree at the right. Below them on the same tree are two woodpidgeons. The sun appears to be setting or rising at the far right.
Provenance
Evidently, from the dating of this painting (1667), one of the three (but possibly more) pictures by Barlow at Clandon originally painted for Sir Robert III Parkhurst, Kt (dubbed 1660; died 1674) at Pyrford; acquired with the latter by Denzil Onslow, MP (1640/1–1721) in 1677, seen by Evelyn there in 1681 (who said that the hall was “adorned with paintings of fowle, & huntings, &c.; the work of Mr. Barlow who is excellent in this kind from the life”), and left by Denzil with Pyrford to his great-nephew, Thomas, 2nd Baron Onslow (1679–1740) at Clandon, where seen by Horace Walpole in 1764 (who mentions “four or five large and good pictures of animals by Barlow”). “Three large Pictures of Fowls” were listed in the Large Saloon in 1778, but only two were mentioned in the house by J.P. Neale in 1826, though he does specifically state that they had come from Denzil Onslow’s seat at Pyrford;Marked in Lady Iveagh’s 1966 Inventory, p47; Accepted by the Treasury in lieu of Estate Duty on the death of Lady Iveagh in 1968 and transferred to the National Trust (1968 Schedule B)
Credit line
Clandon Park, The Onslow Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On the wood, bottom right: F. Barlow: 1667
Makers and roles
Francis Barlow (Lincolnshire c.1626 - London 1704), artist
References
Sparrow 1922: Walter Shaw Sparrow, British Sporting Artists, London, 1922, pp.29-31 Colwyn Edward Vulliamy, The Onslow Family 1528-1874, London 1953, pp.24-5 Waterhouse 1994 Ellis K. Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790, Pelican History of Art, Harmondsworth, [1st Pub.1953], 1994 ed., p.81 Whinney, Margaret Dickins. English art 1625-1714 1957., p.278 Waterhouse 1988, Ellis K. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of 16th & 17th Century British Painters, Woodbridge 1988, p.18 Clandon Park, Surrey, 1964: [National Trust; Pamela, Countess of Onslow] 1964, p.24 Clandon Park, Surrey, 1979: [National Trust; John Cornforth] 1979, p.27, in The State Dining Room Clandon Park, Surrey, 1983: [National Trust; revised by Christopher Beharrel], 1983, p.30 Clandon Park, Surrey, 2002: [National Trust; Sophie Chessum & Christopher Rowell], 2002, p.36, in the State Dining Room Flis 2011 Nathan Flis, Francis Barlow : Painter of Birds & Beasts, Clandon Park, exh.cat., 2011