Sir
I should be very much obliged if you would do me the honour to aid my purpose in publishing the Engraving to which the enclosed circular refers. <1> I hope by this means to assist Mr Barker - the painter of the Woodman <2> who is now nearly eighty years old and suffers severely from poverty - yet his fine mind is energetic as ever his hand powerful & his eye clean, by timely aid I hope to be enable him to paint for the Royal Academy a picture worthy of his reputation.
I have the honour to be Sir Your Obliged & Obedient Servant
Charles Empson
The Museum
Terrace Walks
Bath
Jany 1. 1846.
Notes:
1. Circular not located.
2. Thomas Barker (1767-1847), a painter known as 'Barker of Bath'. His initial training was sponsored by a local businessman , who forbade him to draw from life, forcing Barker to base his works on English, French, Dutch and Italian paintings. His most famous work, Woodman in a Storm was completed in 1789, early in his career, and was modelled on a Gainsborough. After his marriage in 1803, Barker commissioned a Doric-columned house in Bath, with a thirty foot picture gallery.