Home  Catalogue The Grand Tour
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The Grand Tour |
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Going abroad, particularly to Mediterranean climes, was a favourite 19th century prescription for ill health. While the curative powers of travel were behind the decision to send Barry off, he might well have gone anyway. Since the early 18th century gentlemen had filled those difficult years between college and career with mind-expanding travel on the Continent. Viewed as a chance for young men to sow their wild oats far from home, the Grand Tour was a feature of aristocratic English life right up until the First World War.
Travellers with physical problems might favour the spa towns of northern Europe, those with military or musical interests might choose the northern cities of Prague or Vienna. But by far the most popular tourist destination was Italy Ð particularly for a young man like Barry, who was keen to become an artist. It was generally accepted that while French cuisine and German music could be experienced in England, the supreme art and architecture of the Renaissance could only be appreciated in Italy itself.
Though many art enthusiasts started their journeys in Paris, Barry appears to have gone straight to Italy, intent on seeing the whole country: the north with its Renaissance splendours, the south with its Classical ruins. Leaving England in the autumn of 1899 he travelled with a tutor, as was the custom for young gentlemen. Though many budding artists might have chosen a drawing instructor, Barry's tutor, Mr. Prentice, appears to have had some sort of medical training. He was referred to on occasion as 'Dr.' Prentice and was closely questioned about Barry's mental as well as his intellectual development. Indeed Barry's mental state continued to be a source of anxiety to his father who, throughout his time abroad and for several years to come, censored all his son's correspondence.
In November 1899 Barry and Mr. Prentice were touring the Italian lakes. By December they were in Venice – a city which enchanted Barry the moment he saw it, and to which he would frequently return. Since snow threatened the alpine passes of northern Italy, as winter drew on the travellers headed south. Like many tourists they planned to be in Rome for major religious ceremonies and spent Christmas in the papal city. In early January Mr. Prentice was called back to England to attend his dying father. Barry, barely 16 years of age, was left on his own with instructions from his tutor to: 'Go and see all Rome and know it by the time I return. Go to the Opera and anything else that is on If you want anything ask the manager. Buck up and hold yourself ready to talk to all the ladies when they talk to you.'
Talking to the ladies does not seem to have been one of Barry's problems; his correspondence from this period is full of letters from girls he'd met, arranging invitations and outings, exchanging information and gossip, offering sketches of favourite sites.
Mr. Prentice returned in mid-January and the pair continued south. In summer the southern cities of Naples and Rome were considered unhealthy because of the risk of malaria, but spring was an ideal time to visit. In February Barry climbed Vesuvius. From Naples he would have explored the nearby archaeological sites – the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum. He and Mr. Prentice spent the early spring on the Amalfi coast and were back in Rome in time for the Easter celebrations. Throughout their time abroad Barry recorded the journey in drawings and paintings, many of which he dutifully sent home to his father.
As the excursion neared its end, the issue of Barry's future loomed. In April 1900 his father wrote: 'you will shortly be coming to England and then we shall have to decide what you are to do next. I had originally intended that after leaving Harrow, you should go to the University and then you could have gone into the Guards, or if you didn't like the army, into the diplomatic service, or if you had set your mind on going into the church and were still of that opinion at an age when you knew something of the world you could have done that your sudden breakdown at Harrow, has, however, completely upset all these plans.'
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