drawings by Barlow, entitled Several Ways of Hunting, Hawking, and Fishing, invented by Francis Barlow, engraved by W. Hollar, 1671, published by John Overton. A 2011 article in History Today explored the subtext in examples of Barlow's work: though his wildlife paintings are superb works of art in themselves, they are, at the same time, "full of rich metaphors that shed light on the anxieties and concerns of a Britain emerging from the horrors of civil war". A case in point is A Decoy, Barlow's allegory on the threat posed to England by Roman Catholicism. In the years leading up to the Glorious Revolution, Barlow became the prime designer of political satire in support of the Whigs; Whig MP Denzil Onslow (1642-1721) acquired or commissioned a number of paintings by Barlow, to decorate his manor house, Pyrford Court. These were more recently housed at Clandon Park, an 18th-century mansion near Guildford, Surrey, becoming one of the largest collections of Barlow's surviving work. Barlow's (and others') work "miraculously" survived a devastating fire at Clandon Park on 29 April 2015. Examples of Barlow's work can be seen at Ham House (in Ham, south of Richmond in London); examples are held, too, by: Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Barlow frequently signed the initials of his name, F.B., instead of inserting it at full length, sometimes enclosing the initials in a small circle. Assessment Barlow has come to be regarded as a "surprisingly neglected artist". Art historian Mark Hallett accounts for this by noting that Barlow's time is British art's "forgotten era" - one that "has tended to be overshadowed by the achievements of earlier artists, such as Van Dyck, or those that came later, such as Hogarth"; Hallett finds this unjust: Barlow made a significant contribution to what "in reality [. . .] was a remarkably rich, vibrant and cosmopolitan period for the visual arts in Britain." Gallery See also English art List of British artists References Sources Article on the Lambiek Comiclopedia "Francis Barlow, c. 1626-1702"; From: A New General Biographical Dictionary, Projected and partly arranged by the late Rev. Hugh James Rose, B.D., Principal of King's College, London Hodnett, Edward. Francis Barlow: first master of English book illustration. London: Scolar, 1978. . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/barlow_francis.htm Attribution 1620s births 1704 deaths 17th-century English painters English male painters 18th-century