William Gerard Barry

Barry showed a talent for drawing at a young age. He enrolled in Cork's Crawford School of Art and studied there under Henry Jones Thaddeus from 1881 to 1883.^[4] Thaddeus advised Barry to travel to Paris where he continued his training at Académie Julian under Le Febre, Boulanger and Carolus Duran.^[6]

His initial success came in 1887 when he received a £30 Taylor prize after sending a painting to the Royal Dublin Society from Étaples with his painting called "Abandoned". When he first arrived in Canada, he worked as a sign-painter and horse-breaker on a ranch before moving to the United States.^[4] In 1888, he was living in Chicago.^[7] By 1913, he was well established as a portrait painter, and in 1926 his address was listed as New York.^[1] It is claimed that he was commissioned to paint a portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, that then hung in the White House.^[3] He travelled around the South Sea Islands with writer Frederick O'Brien.^[1]

Barry was living in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in southwest France during the German occupation of World War II. There he worked drawing charcoal portraits from his small studio, and later he received an annuity. During the occupation, Barry considered returning to Ireland, but was concerned that his "family would shut him up and this way he would lose control of his money, his greatest love in life". He died at his home there during a bombing raid on 9 September 1941.^[4]

According to the Crawford Art Gallery, very little of Barry's work survives,^[2] though the Smithsonian American Art Museum hold an example of his work.^[8] In 2007, there were only ten known works by Barry.^[3]

• Barry's Time Flies painting and Bio