In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- James Barry 1741–1806
- Medium
- Etching, line engraving and aquatint on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 433 x 613 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1992
- Reference
- T06572
Display caption
Barry was a close friend of the politician Edmund Burke and shared his hostility to King George III's and his government's repression of the American colonies in their War of Independence (1775-83). Blake felt similarly but never produced, for such wide circulation as Barry did with this print, so direct an attack on the government. Barry makes clear his sympathy for the Americans by including a self-portrait among the mourners for the dead Britannia. She has died because the liberties which once held sway in Britain had now fled to America where, phoenix-like, they are reborn. The seventeenth century poet John Milton, who was an advocate of individual liberty, is also one of the mourners.
Gallery label, August 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(42,290)
- periods and styles(5,414)
- classical(1,079)
- religious(7,061)
- temple(347)
- ruins(3,854)
- townscape(104)
- townscapes / man-made features(22,285)
- townscape, distant(8,380)
- periods and styles(5,414)
- emotions, concepts and ideas(16,929)
- emotions and human qualities(5,367)
- history(5,844)
- nature(46,522)
- animals: fantastic(701)
- phoenix(5)
- animals: mammals(5,149)
- landscape(26,713)
- plants and flowers(2,760)
- garland(34)
- water: inland(11,674)
- river(8,350)
- animals: fantastic(701)
- objects(23,666)
- agriculture, gardening & fishing(1,035)
- scythe(29)
- fine arts and music(3,771)
- sculpture(691)
- religious and ceremonial(1,737)
- gravestone / tomb(326)
- reading, writing, printed matter(5,142)
- book - non-specific(1,974)
- scroll(27)
- agriculture, gardening & fishing(1,035)
- people(35,852)
- work and occupations(14,388)
- society(35,458)
- birth to death(1,461)
- mourning(93)
- government and politics(3,365)
- revolution(189)
- social comment(6,602)
- colonialism(443)
- freedom(181)
- satire(243)
- birth to death(1,461)
- symbols and personifications(7,286)
- birth to death(114)
- abstract concepts(125)
You might like
James Barry The Thames, or the Triumph of Navigation
first published 1792
James Barry Philoctetes in the Island of Lemnos
1777–1808
James Barry William Pitt, Earl of Chatham
1778–1808
James Barry The Birth of Venus
1776–1808
James Barry The Thames, or the Triumph of Navigation
first published 1792
James Barry Lord Baltimore and the Group of Legislators
1793–1808
James Barry Sacra Christi Familia
c.1776–1808
James Barry The Temptation of Adam
1776–c.1790
James Barry The Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts
first published 1792
James Barry A Grecian Harvest Home
first published 1792
James Barry Orpheus
first published 1792
James Barry The Glorious Sextumvirate
1795
James Barry King George and Queen Charlotte
first published 1792
James Barry Reserved Knowledge
1795–1808
James Barry Study for ‘Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos’
1770