9. James Barry
James Barry was born in Ireland in 1741, the artist is best known for his six-part series of paintings, “The Progress of Human Culture”. He completed these for the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts. Barry became a member of the Royal Academy in 1773 and taught as a Professor there from 1782 to 1799. The artist was one of the earliest of the “romantic” painters in Britain and although he died in poverty in 1806 Barry was – ironically – thought to be the most important Irish Neoclassical artist.