Sheep Washing

A group of five figures are shown standing in the river in the foreground of this painting washing a flock of sheep that is being led from the left into the water. The curving form of the river leads the viewer’s eye into the painting and the distant mountains. The landscape is of Thomas Barker’s native Wales that he continued to visit throughout his life.

Landscapes with figures in them had become popular through the work of seventeenth century artists including Nicolas Poussin and Meindert Hobbema. Thomas Barker studied by copying these earlier masters and became famous for being able to imitate their different styles. The soft edges of the Welsh landscape and the tones of brown and green used in Sheep Washing are close in style to the early British landscape painter Richard Wilson who remained influential throughout the nineteenth century.