Travellers attacked by Robbers
Benjamin Barker (Pontypool 1776 – Totnes 1838)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1814 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
292 x 368 mm (11 1/2 x 14 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732164
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Travellers attacked by Robbers by Benjamin Barker the younger (Pontypool 1776 - Totnes 1838) signed and dated 1814. At the centre of this dramatic scene taking place on heathland, a figure on a white horse has been shot with a pistol fired by a man wearing a red coat and with a red feather in his hat. A second figure brandishes a sword and a third appears to be aiming a shotgun. In the foreground a prostrate figure sits on the ground where his horse, apparently shot from under him, lays dying. To the right a man stands cowed with his head in his hands. Above them in the sky, gathering storm clouds underline the violence of the subject.
Provenance
Acquired by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Bt (1758 – 1838); given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Benjamin Barker (Pontypool 1776 – Totnes 1838), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Thomas Jones Barker (Bath 1813 - Hampstead 1882)