The years that Francis Barry spent abroad are among the most mysterious in his life. No record of him exists in the towns where he is thought to have lived, local museums have no examples of his work, no correspondence remains from that period and no friends have emerged to describe it. Only his works from that time Ð particularly his etchings _Ð give any indication of his life, and all the plates were destroyed during an allied bombing raid on Milan in 1944.
One telling object survives: a silver croquet champion cup. In 1922, 1923, and again in 1929 Barry won the Menton Croquet Championship – a triumph which he described as being to croquet what Wimbledon is to tennis. Though he showed little interest in conventional sports, Barry was a fan of all forms of dance from ballet to cabaret. He was also a keen ballroom dancer. What his new wife Violet thought of dance is not known, but their marriage was by all accounts happy. She shared Barry's passion for cigars and brandy, she tolerated his philandering, and she helped him with his etchings.
While he was still in St. Ives Barry had begun experimenting with etching and by 1920 he was exhibiting his prints with the Royal Society of Scottish Artists. His tutors Frank Brangwyn and Alfred East were both respected etchers; their success may have inspired Barry to try the form.
While etching had a long and illustrious history on the Continent, in Britain it was always considered a secondary art form best suited to illustrating text. In the late nineteenth century British etching underwent a brief revival when Whistler championed a looser French approach, introducing open spaces and spontaneous lines to the detail and precision which characterize the British style. In 1880 Whistler founded the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers to promote print-making. This engendered a short vogue for etching, but by the 1920's the market was flooded with second-rate work and once again etching was discredited.
Whereas in St. Ives Barry had to market his etchings as souvenirs, on the Continent he could sell them as art. Europeans had never questioned the status of etching, not least because some of their greatest artists were also master-etchers: from Rembrandt in the seventeenth century through Goya and Piranesi in the eighteenth, Millet, Corot and Degas in the nineteenth century, to Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Chagall in the twentieth.
Combining the British and Continental traditions, Barry's etchings manage to be both precise and atmospheric: formal elements of architecture and landscape harmonize with delicate depictions of water, light and sky. His prints were well received at the Paris Salon where he exhibited regularly; indeed he was awarded gold, silver and bronze medals for his etchings in both France and Italy. This professional acclaim appears to have been accompanied by financial success; his family believes he made a good living from his etchings, with Queen Mary, Neville Chamberlain and Mussolini among his diverse patrons.
The catalogue of Barry's work from the 1920's and 30's reveals a restless traveller moving between the hill towns of Tuscany, the alpine villages of Southern Germany and the rocky outposts of the Pyrenees. For at least part of this time Barry lived among the expatriate communities on the Mediterranean. An etching entitled View From The Artist's Garden suggests that he lived in the old town of Bordighera high above the bustle of the Italian Riviera (see page 145). In his later life Barry claimed to have lived for a time in Venice; certainly the watery city figures frequently in his works.
While drawn to such rugged landscapes as San Gimignano in Italy and Le Puy in France, Barry also found inspiration in the calm coast-line of the French Riviera. Dusk and darkness also feature prominently in his work: inspired by the technical challenge, intrigued by the dramatic possibilities, he repeatedly contrasts the stark outline of towers, spires and trees with the softness of a distant star-lit sky.
Another recurring motif of these years is the woman dancing alone on a beach: sometimes she is depicted against a massive rainbow or an overhanging palm, sometimes it's a night sky, or an exuberant fire-works display. Whether these pictures pay homage to individual muses or simply testify to Barry's enduring love of women, they mark a new thread in his work: a sensual and unabashed celebration of the female.
Despite the success of his etchings, Barry was forced to take on students during his European years. Though he claimed: 'teaching is slavery and prostitution', later pupils described him as a generous and encouraging teacher. In fact in his final years Barry wrote a treatise on art to pass on the knowledge aquired over sixy years of work. Found among his possessions at his death, the manuscript, entitled Painting, is full of personal insight and practical advice.
In Painting Barry described his own working method. First he would sketch out the design with charcoal directly on the canvas, then he would cover the surface with a thin layer of neutral paint, only then would he begin to apply colour.
Colour was the guiding force in Barry's work: 'Colour is the heart and the soul, the joy and the glory of painting; without fine colour no picture can be truly great, but with fine colour a multitude of other sins can be forgiven'. Though he narrowed his palette to seven, five, and sometimes only three colours, Barry created shadow by using complimentary colours. He preferred his colours pure and unmixed, applied directly from the tube. To make secondary colours such as orange, he advised: 'don't paint orange, but get the orange by spots of red and spots of yellow which mix in the eye when seen at the proper distance.'
Barry's approach to colour was essentially Divisionist. Based on the theories of the French Pointillists Seurat and Signac, Divisionism aimed to maximize luminosity by using clear, unmixed colours and by separating colours from the surrounding light, shadow and reflections. To ensure the purity of his colours Barry refused to varnish his finished works preferring instead to use copious quantities of fixative.
In other sections of the manuscript, Barry advised students to study anatomy and the laws of perspective. He named Matisse as his greatest inspiration: 'Matisse was without doubt far and away the greatest colourist this world has known Matisse also revolutionised tone, getting contrast of light and shadow, not by black and white, but only by contrast of colour.' Certainly the rhythmic line, the flat tones, the brilliant colours, and the decorative serenity of Matisse's style were qualities Barry emulated in his own work.
By the end of the 1930's, war was engulfing Europe and expatriates were advised to return to their homelands. Barry may have been living in Milan at this time, as it is in this city that he stored his etching plates – the work of the previous 22 years – before returning, reluctantly, to England. In his manuscript he claimed: 'the average Englishman knows nothing whatever about art, but since he is an Englishman he is firmly convinced that he knows all there is to know about everything.'
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