Laborers Harvesting Bath Stone
| Attributed To | Benjamin Barker, the Younger (English, 1776–1838) |
|---|---|
| Title | Laborers Harvesting Bath Stone |
| Date | Ca. 1800 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | Framed: 49 1/4 × 54 1/4 × 3 7/8 in. (125.1 × 137.8 × 9.8 cm) Stretcher (acidic backing on support): 42 × 47 1/8 in. (106.7 × 119.7 cm) |
| Credit Line | Museum purchase with funds from the Estate of Herman B Wells via the Joseph Granville and Anna Bernice Wells Memorial Fund, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 2015.2 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
A landscape with a figural group at the center foreground. Laborers are pulling stone from the riverbank and one man stands alongside a horse and wagon. Two women sit off to the side.
This painting focuses on a picturesque subject—peasants quarrying stone near a wooded pool. In late eighteenth-century England, the “picturesque” became an important artistic concept. Landscapes defined as picturesque are characterized by “irregular,” asymmetrical compositions, and often depict traditional ways of life that were beginning to vanish with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. The palette and composition of this work also reflect the influence of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, which was avidly collected in Britain. Benjamin Barker was a landscape artist who worked in the vicinity of Bath, a fashionable spa town in southwest England.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Laborers Harvesting Bath Stone | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2015.2