Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Engraver; born 14 August 1824 in Oldham, Lancashire. Apprenticed to Messrs Stephenson and Royston, Manchester; studied at Manchester School of Design c.1839; moved to London 1847, where his engraving after John Phillip’s Courtship established his reputation and initiated a friendship that brought both men substantial recognition; exh. Society of British Artists 1849 and Royal Academy from 1851; elected RA associate engraver 1873, ARA 1876, RA 1881;[1] a longtime member and secretary of the Etching Club; notable works include reproductions after John Everett Millais such as The Huguenot (1856) and portraits including Henry Irving, Cardinal Newman, William Ewart Gladstone and Alfred Tennyson; also produced engravings after Turner, Ansdell, Frith and Landseer and came to be regarded as the last of the great school of English engravers;[2]; died 24 December 1889, in London.

Described as ‘a lover of children, devoted to their interests and amusements’, Barlow was ‘one of the kindliest of friends and gentlest of critics’.[3]

Magdalene Keaney

Referencesback to top

Aberdeen 1996
Aberdeen Art Gallery Concise Catalogue: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Aberdeen, 1996.

Avery-Quash 2004a
Avery-Quash, S., ‘Barlow, Thomas Oldham (1824–1889)’, ODNB, Oxford, 2004; online ed., September 2004.

Coombs 1990
Coombs, T., Rising from Reality: Art in Oldham from 1820 to 1890, Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham,1990.

Hacking 2000
Hacking, J., Princes of Victorian Bohemia: Photographs by David Wilkie Wynfield, exh. cat., NPG, London, 2000.

Maas 1984
Maas, J., The Victorian Art World in Photographs, London, 1984.

McMaster 2008
McMaster, J., ‘That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy’, British Art Journal, Autumn 2008, pp.62–76.

McMaster 2009
McMaster, J., That Mighty Art of Black-and-White: Linley Sambourne, Punch and the Royal Academy, Edmonton, Canada, 2009.

Mancoff 2001
Mancoff, D.N., ed., John Everett Millais: Beyond the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, New Haven and London, 2001.

Millais 1899
Millais, J.G., The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, 2 vols, London, 1899.

Ormond 2010
Ormond, L., Linley Sambourne: Illustrator and Punch Cartoonist, London, 2010.

Robinson [1892]
Robinson, R.W., Members and Associates of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1891. Photographed in their Studios by Ralph W. Robinson of Redhill, n.p., [1892].

Stephens 1884
Stephens, F.G., ed., Artists at Home. Photographed by J.P. Mayall and reproduced in facsimile…, 6 parts, London, 1884.

Thornber 1891
Thornber, H., ‘Memoir of Thomas Oldham Barlow, R.A and a catalogue of his engravings’, Manchester Quarterly, no.10, April 1891, pp.31–41.