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Charles Burton Barber

(1845 - 1894)

Charles Burton Barber was one of the foremost painters of animals and genre of his generation. Perhaps primarily known for his sentimental scenes of children and dogs, Barber was also an accomplished landscape painter. However, it was as a painter of dogs that Barber found favour with Queen Victoria, an influential patron who commissioned Barber to portray many of her favourite dogs. In 1873 he exhibited “Her Majesty’s Favourite Collie” at the Royal Academy and in 1878 exhibited “Fozzy” the Prince of Wales’s dog. Barber and Queen Victoria in addition had a common interest in the beauties and romance of Scotland the source of a number of his Royal Academy exhibits including “North of the Tweed” of 1869 and “A Misty Evening – Stag Roaming of 1875”. Barber had first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 and continued to do so until 1893 the year before his untimely death. A London painter he lived in Notting Hill and Hackney before spending three years in Great Marlow, returning to live near Regents Park in London in 1874. He exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street in addition to the Royal Academy. A painter with a remarkable technique and facility for portraying the sentiment in his subject it is his paintings of children accompanied by dogs that were and are the most highly prized. Herbert Davis Richter was born in Brighton 10th May 1874. His family moved to Lansdown on the outskirts of Bath and it was at the Bath School of Art that Richter studied Furniture Design and Architecture. He subsequently set up in business with his brother Charles, the Company Bath Cabinet Makers, with himself as Head of the Design Department. In 1900, the Company was awarded Gold and Silver Medals at the Paris World Exhibition. The Company was later awarded contracts for the furniture and fittings for the Cunard Liners, Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. In 1906, Richter decided on a change of career and moved to London to enrol at Art School, initially at Lambeth School of Art and then at the London School of Art where he studied under J M Swan and Sir Frank Brangwyn, the latter proving a lifelong influence, seen in Richter’s use of bold colours, brushwork and composition. In terms of subject matter, Richter was renowned for Still Life of Flowers, Interiors and Garden scenes. Richter exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1906, while still living at Lansdown near Bath, and continued to exhibit there until 1949; on moving to London, he finally settled in Redcliffe Square in 1912. He exhibited widely and was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1910, to the Pastel Society in 1916, the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil 1917, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour 1927, the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists in 1927 and the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1937. Richter was a highly regarded artist in his lifetime and remains so, that he is widely represented in Museums Art Galleries and Public Collections is a reflection of the high regard in which he is held. His works can be found in museums and art galleries in: Bath; Bournemouth; Bradford; Brighton; Doncaster; Dundee; Glasgow; Harrogate; Hull; Kilmarnock; Leeds; Manchester; Rochdale; Sunderland and Wakefield.