WOOD, John Barlow

1862 - 1949

John Barlow Wood was born at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 10 November 1862, son of John Wood (1826-1906), a china warehouseman, and his wife Elizabeth née Barlow (1829-1905), who retired to Woodbridge, Suffolk. Young John began his career as a ceramic painter for Minton before becoming a professional portrait and landscape artist. He worked in Oxford in 1894 and at Woodbridge, Suffolk in 1897 and in 1901, was an artist of Drybridge Lodge, Woodbridge, Suffolk. His father died at Woodbridge in 1906 when John Barlow Wood moved to Ipswich. In early 1911, a 48-year-old artist, staying at the Blue Anchor Inn, Brook Street, Connington, Somerset and later that year married at Ipswich, Constance Emily Fry (1876-23 February 1930), sister of Edward Ransome Fry and Douglas Fry, and they moved to Kendal, Westmorland, where John was a member of the Lake Artists Society 1914-1931 but, on the death of his wife at Briarley, Kentrigg, Kendalm in 1930, he returned to live at Ipswich but in 1939, was a widower and a retired artist, living at The Surgery, Weobley, Herefordshire. He exhibited at the Royal Academy also exhibiting at the Royal Society of British Artists; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery 1894-1911, from Oxford in 1894, Woodbridge 1897 and Ipswich in 1905. A member of Ipswich Art Club from 1895 until 1927 and at their centenary exhibition in 1974 his watercolour 'River Scene with Barge' was on show. John Barlow Wood returned to live at Fleet Holme, Lowgill, Kendal and it seems probable that he suffered from bipolar affective disorder, a mental illness, and he died whilst a patient at The Retreat, a Quaker psychiatric hospital at Neslington Road, York on 4 August 1949, aged 86 and buried in the Friends’ Burial Ground, Kendal.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Woodbridge, Suffolk
1900 859 Early Spring
from The Studio, 5 Tavern Street, Ipswich
1910 586 Sunshine and Shadow

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Works by This Artist