'The Old Woodman': George Kelston (after Thomas Barker)
George Young (fl.1835)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1834 - 1835 (acquired by Colt Hoare)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
654 x 508 mm (25 3/4 x 20 in)
Place of origin
Bath
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732347
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, 'The Old Woodman': George Kelston, by George Young after Thomas Barker (Pontypool 1769 – Bath 1847), 1835. A full-length upright view of an old man, reputedly 100, carrying an axe and a scythe tucked into his belt walks along a snow covered path in a black jacket, red smock and a black hat, smoking a pipe. He is accompanied by a dog on the right who looks faithfully up at him. It is a copy after an engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi in 1792 after a painting by Thomas Barker of Bath (Pontypool 1767 - Bath 1847) now in Pontypool Museum. The original painting was inspired by the poem 'The Task' by William Cowper, 1785.
Provenance
Acquired by Richard Colt Hoare 2nd Bt (1758 – 1838) in 1835 and thence by descent. 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 (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: A label on the back provides the information George Kelson aged 100. A labourer of Wid-combe Bath painted by Mr Barker Bath and copied in oils by George Young at Stourhead in the year 1835 from an uncoloured print by Bartolozzi
Makers and roles
George Young (fl.1835), artist after Thomas Barker (Pontypool 1769 - Bath 1847), artist
References
McCallum, 2003: Iain McCallum, Thomas Barker of Bath, The Artist and his Circle, Bath 2003