Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Barralet, John James

1102058Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 03 — Barralet, John James1885Ernest Radford

BARRALET, JOHN JAMES (d. 1812), water-colour painter, of French extraction, was born in Ireland. He was a student in the Dublin Academy, and worked under Manning. He settled in Dublin after going through the schools, and was in vogue as a teacher. He was made a member of the London Society of Artists, and exhibited occasionally at the Royal Academy. In 1774 he received a premium from the Society of Arts for a picture, ‘A View on the Thames.’ In 1795 he emigrated to Philadelphia. His morals suffered, it is said, in the new country. His chief employment whilst there was in book illustrations. He made drawings for Grose's ‘Antiquities of Ireland,’ and Conyngham's ‘Irish Antiquities.’ His works were engraved by Bartolozzi, Grignion, and others. In the British Museum a good drawing by Barralet is preserved, signed 1786, of a ruined bridge in Ireland. The composition is good, the manner of painting flat and old-fashioned; there is considerable vitality, if no very literal truth, in the figures which enliven it. He ‘painted figures, landscape, and flowers. His landscape drawings in chalk, in which he affected to imitate Vernet, were much admired. He afterwards became a stainer of glass.’ South Kensington shows examples of his work.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Eng. Painters; Rose's Biog. Dict.]

E. R.