this time a premium being offered by the Dublin society, for the best landscape in oil, Mr. Barret contended for, and obtained it.
In the year 1762, he arrived in London, where he soon distinguished himself, and, in two years after his arrival gained the fifty pounds premium given by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. &c. &c. For the establishment of the Royal Academy, the public were, in a great measure, indebted to the exertions of Mr. Barret, who formed the plan, and became one of its earliest members.
He was a chaste and faithful delineator of English landscape, which he viewed with the eye of an artist, and selected with the feelings of a man of taste. He had two decided manners of painting, both with regard to colour and touch: his first was rather heavy in both; his latter, much lighter. Scarcely any painter equalled him in his knowledge or characteristic execution of the details of nature. His attention was chiefly directed to the true colour of English scenery, its richness, dewy freshness, and that peculiar verdure, especially in the vernal months, which is so totally different from the colouring of those masters who have formed themselves on Italian scenery, or Italian pictures. This strong desire sometimes tempted him to use colours both rich and beautiful when first applied, but which no art could render permanent, and which, in some of his slighter works, prevailed to such a degree as to leave scarcely any traces of the original colouring. This resulted from the immoderate use of glazing. The best pictures of this inestimable artist are to be found in the collections of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Portland, and the great room at Mr. Locke's, Norbury Park, Surrey, consisting of a large room, painted with a continued scene entirely round it; a performance which will ever rank among the most celebrated productions of the art. The idea, in general, characterises the northern part of this country; and, for composition, breadth of effect,
