Robert Barr
Nationality: Scottish
Date of birth: 1850
Place of birth: Glasgow
Date of death: 1912.10.21
Place of death: Surrey, UK
Category: journalist
Identity:
Robert Barr, an artisan, teacher and journalist, married Eva Bennett. They had a daughter Laura.
Life:
Robert Barr was educated in Toronto. In 1876 he joined the staff of the Detroit Free Press. He settled in London in 1881. In 1892 Barr founded the Idler paper, together with Jerome K. Jerome. During the winter of 1894 he met Whistler.
Whistler painted Barr's portrait in 1894/5, Portrait of Robert Barr y428. One day Robert brought his daughter to the studio with him and Whistler, taken with her, asked if he might paint her portrait. This being agreed upon, Eva Barr accompanied her daughter to her daily sittings. Sickert recalled that Portrait of Miss Laura Barr y429, was painted at his studio at 13 Robert Street, and that he made a pencil drawing of Laura whilst Whistler was painting her. This drawing was acquired by the Barr family.
Bibliography:
Academy, London, 10 October 1903, p. 390; Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908 , Sickert, W., 'Where Paul and I Differ', Art News, no. 14, 10 February 1910, p. 113; Sickert, W., 'L'Affaire Greaves', New Age, 15 June 1911, pp. 159-60; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .
'Laura Barr', Ancestry.com.
