Baker, Thomas |
| PAINTER (ENGLAND) |
|
BORN 9 Oct 1809, Birmingham, West Midlands: Harborne - DIED 10 Aug 1864, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire GRAVE LOCATION Birmingham, West Midlands: St. Peter's Church, Old Church Road, Harborne (Churchyard (next to David Cox)) |
|
Thomas Baker was born in Harborne, a suburb of Birmingham. His father was the headmaster of Harbourne Free School. He studied with Vincent Barber (1788-1838) and from 1827 onwards he exhibited with the Birmingham Society of Artists. He mostly painted landscapes, often with cattle. He made notes of all his work and it seems that he produced 800 works. Four of his oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy. He had five illegitimate children by Elizabeth Alice Smith, a housekeeper from Cubbington. His son Edmund Smith-Baker was a photographer and landscape painter in Birmingham. Thomas Baker died at 10 Regent Grove in Leamington Spa aged only 55. There was a suggestion that he was poisoned by his housekeeper Hannah Hewitt. There was no evidence for this but she seems to have committed suicide because of the rumours. Baker was buried close to the grave of the painter David Cox at St. Peter's Chuchyard in his native Harborne, Birmingham. His son Edmund donated his notebooks to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1908. |
| Images |
 The grave of Thomas Baker at St. Peter's Churchyard, Harborne, Birmingham. Picture by Androom (20 Oct 2012) |
Sources • Thomas Baker (artist) - Wikipedia (EN) |
